I have a mild love/hate relationship with low-cost airlines. As I travel regularly around Europe, it is quite unfeasible for me to buy tickets from the regular airlines even if I wanted to. I can barely remember a time when I actually got out my wallet to pay for a ticket from one of these, and it has left me wondering if I would do it had I the funds. Despite the fact that Ryanair or Easyjet may add fees up to your eyeballs if you don't meet their regulations, and they may have hour queues at Stansted (there was one such queue yesterday, which I narrowly managed to avoid), but recent events have started to change my mind.
First of all, I have started realising that the rushing toward the gate and subsequently onto the plane has it's own little charm. Those passengers that actually get themselves organised and are there early actually get the best seats on the plane. This serves those who are slightly neurotic, like me, in wanting to get to the gate early and avoiding the last minute clamber onto the plane. Naturally this is not so good for those who prefer the more relaxed atmosphere, perhaps wondering round the shops before hand, or hanging out at the bar. If these things please you then the benefit of having a pre-chosen seat is invaluable.
Moreover, I like the idea that if one travels light -which the last couple of trips I have- then there is the possibility of bypassing the usually huge check-in queues. The flipside of this of course is that sometimes you do not travel only with hand luggage and often then you are left in the queue with hundreds of other equally frustrated travellers. I should add that this is only a problem at London for me as when I have used Ryanair at Edinburgh and Gothenburg City (or Säve to locals) then the queues have been next to non-existent.
I have also always found that the planes are in a good condition and have never felt like they are going to fall apart. One exception of an Easyjet plane that I took from London to Aberdeen Dyce which was so small it felt like it was going to fall out of the sky when it hit turbulence. This thankfully did not happen. I have also found that the landings of the planes have been pretty decent. The reason why this is such an issue is that the runway at Gothenburg City seems much shorter than any other airport that I have encountered, and all the Ryanair pilots have managed this admirably. Reinforcing this was a landing at Edinburgh airport a couple of weeks back in 120 mile an hour winds. As the plane descended everyone on board was silent as the plane was being thrown about all over the place by the winds, yet the landing was remarkable smooth and it was the only time where Ryanair's cheering tape played at every on time landing seemed strangely appropriate and was supported by a clap from all occupants of the plane.
The reason why I say all this is because I feel that these airlines do get a great deal of bad press. One might argue that with Ryanair's profits rising by 23% this year to 374 million Euros then they really do not need me defending them. I would say that this may be just me convincing myself that the stress is sometimes is justified tradeoff for expediency. There are also doubtless people who have extensive horror stories of these airlines. One thing I did notice yesterday was a wheelchair bound older woman being forced to tackle stairs to the plane after the Ryanair member of staff had ushered her through. I am in no place to comment on their policy as regards wheelchairs but this seemed a little mystifying and genuinely wonder what would have happened if the woman had been completely unable to walk. This is perhaps a prime example of human compassion being forgotten at the expense of a quicker turnaround. I have to say though that these cases have been mercifully few in all the years that I have travelled, and perhaps now I am finally getting comfortable with the idea of flying with them.
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