As every airline should say, "safety is our priority"
Rhythm, I'm sure that most airlines would claim an earnest attitude to safety. However, having travelled worldwide with more airlines than I can count, I no longer have confidence that safety is more than crossed fingers for some of them. I've had more than one moment (mainly Asian airlines, sorry) where it was apparent that the cabin crew hadn't a clue how to deal with any crisis beyond a spilled coffee, and the flight crew never made their presence known beyond getting the plane airborne and landing it.
With carriers like Easyjet and Ryanair, I don't doubt that the flight crew are first rate and the cabin crew well trained. But so many other aspects of the flight pay lip service to the concept of safety. For example, when everyone's encouraged to bring hand-luggage only, the overhead lockers get packed with huge heavy cases that you really don't want to have fall on your head in the event of turbulence. Are those lockers really designed for that kind of loading, I wonder? Often, after landing, you find the plane taxiing at an rate that seems to push the bounds of what's safe; doubtless it's within legal limits, but only just. And most of the time you don't walk off the plane via an air-bridge; you pick your way down a dark steep staircase and drag your massive hand-luggage to a stand-up bus, get driven for miles round the perimeter from a non-stand no-man's-land, clinging desperately to an overhead strap and trying to avoid having your leg broken by someone else's wheeled luggage rolling down the bus at you. This may not be in the same league as depressurisation at 37,000 feet, but as a passenger I can't avoid a sense that my safety, as far as the company's concerned, goes exactly as far as the legalities insist, and not a step beyond.
Do I expect the oxygen masks to drop? Yes, I do. The company would be in big trouble if they didn't. Do I think the company will make serious efforts above and beyond the legal minimum to maximise the chances of them dropping? Well no, I don't. The no-frills aesthetic is so evident, it's hard not to feel that safety standards beyond what they can be caught out for legally, would not be considered.
I stand to be told that the lo-cos have maintenance, training and general safety standards well in excess of the mainline airlines. Perhaps they do. But when I'm made to stand in a bad-tempered queue, bundled onto a plane by bad-tempered staff, forced to sit in a seat under a locker in which someone has strained to stow a rucksack he can hardly lift, asked to pay for a crap sandwich and told crisply to get settled by a flight crew desperate not to miss their slot, I can't help but feel that the company will not have spent a penny more than it absolutely has to in ensuring my safety.
Perhaps you can tell me otherwise.