All too much now ...
Unfortuneatly, this is what low cost (low cost of sales that is) has done to the industry.
Ironically, the same pasengers who demand ever decreasing ticket prices (fuelled by negative influences like ... ?!) are the ones who end up taking it on the chin when these companies can no longer afford to keep/run spare aircraft (because it doesn't fit into the low cost model).
I already here people say things like "if there is a non low cost option, I will always pay the (not very much) extra to take it".
When it starts to go wrong in low cost, it really goes wrong. There is just no slack left in the system. If we turn up an hour late at some of our destinations, we have problems getting fuel, bags, services or anything else because the handling companies have moved on to the next schedule ... and the locos just don't pay the handling companies enough for them to keep any slack in their systems ... and on it goes.
I believe we are getting to the stage where the travelling public (the now well travelled public) are beginning to realise that unless ticket prices go back up (by a moderate amount), that there lives in the air will become more and more difficult ...
Lets hope that our very clever comercial departments start to realise this too ...
A loco skipper