Thanks Deskjocky, for your post. Answers a lot of my questions. I guess Easyjet and Ryanair must have received an awesome deal from Airbus and Boeing respectively due to the scale of their ops.
My only question that really remains unanswered is that at what level the fuel price must be for the older a/c to really become un-economic. I heard the other day that it costs 400% more today to fill up than it did in December 2001. Additionally the LCC's have not adopted the practice of adding a fuel levy so ultimately this will affect the bottom line???