'Bog' standard Ryanair

[TightSlot]

Christ! Wish you hadn't brought me into this!

Actually, I don't think I've needed to do much deletion on this thread. I keep thinking that it has gone away, and then, like an opera singer for yet one more encore, it wanders back on stage... For the record, here's where I stand on FR (personal opinion, not that of PPRuNe):

• Whatever any of us may think about FR, the fact remains that they are the most successful airline in Europe, by any criteria you can mention. The fact is that a majority of their customers are satisfied, and that this group of customers is expanding. Opinions about FR tend to be subjective - You like/admire them or you don't, sometimes based on personal experience, sometimes on principle: We all have the ultimate consumer sanction of taking our business away from them if we choose to do so. The fact is, by and large it doesn't matter what we do. There are millions of people who choose to fly FR and are happy with the product - not just the back-packers, students and sleep-on-the-floor-at-Stansted groups, but also the great British middle-class - the public, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that this is how they wish the airtravel market to be, and therefore that's how it is.

• For the record, I loathe FR and O'Leary with all my being. Together, in my view, they have destroyed any pleasure and quality of life for either customers or staff, that ever may have existed in the industry. I have never travelled with them, and never will, purely on principle. I would rather pay more for what, in my perception only, is higher qulity. That is my personal view, and I am clearly in a small minority: it is unlikely that MOL lies awake at night worrying about my views. Put all of that together, and it probably means I am wrong, or at least that my principles are poorly founded.

Now that's been said, I will police this forum as best I can to ensure that the moderation is neutral, and that FR are treated fairly and have the option to respond to any and all criticism, and also that they receive the bouquets as well as the brickbats. In the end, this is a customer driven industry, and the customer will decide how best to spend their hard-earned income - and in the case of FR, they are choosing to spend it there.