charterguy:
I don´t think you´re quite right about the "Schmidts".
Germans are look very closely at what price they pay.
If Ryanair offered the same as LH (dep/dest airports, routes, frequencies) for a lower price, people would use them.
Fact is, Ryanair flies to/from Hahn, which is at least an hours drive from FRA (or any other "civilized" region for that matter) and to Luebeck (north of HAM) and possibly some other "out-of-the-way" places in Deutschland.
DLH tried to analyze the success of the UK low-cost companies a few years back.
It all has to do with the market from which they mainly operate to/from - the greater London area.
There is currently no other catchment (could be spelled wrong) area of this magnitude in the world.
You have millions of potential customers living within 60Min. of one of the three major airports there.
AND: GB is an island, so airplane travel to the continent has a definite time-advantage over all other modes of transport.
(Only LTU was able to duplicate this biz-model between DUS and PMI - also on an island - in Germany.)
We´ll see if the market in Germany is big enough for Ryanair´s model.
I don´t believe Ryanair itself is the "problem" for DLH (albeit they´re a "pain in the ..."), but rather the fact, that they might be sucking potential long-haul passengers away from Germany to LHR.
DBA has been rather annoying for us, too, but they´re not making much money either.
The real "enemy" for DLH is west of the Rhine anyway...
JMHO