Shamrock, just stop and consider how many ASM (Available Seat Miles) a Ryanair crew fly in a shift; then compare that to an Eastern crew and you will probably find its a multiple of 50x. Then consider that Eastern might be only half full - so 100x. Now work through ALL the other line items on the operating budget, in unit cost terms, and you can see why Ryanair fares are comparatively so cheap and it makes money, but Eastern fares are so much higher and it doesn't. Simple economics. No amount of clever strategy can offset the vast imbalance. The travelling public just assumes that high fares translates to high profits for the airlines. Not so.