It's a little bit a "generation" thing. The guys coming into this business now are the " I want it & I want it now" or "me me me" generation, so regretably see it right & proper to by- pass the years it took me to get to the right hand seat of a jet. Instant gratification is the name of the game for their ilk.
Sad but true, and Ryanair and many other operators are only too happy to exploit it, and sell them what they want.
I totally agree, the business model is heavily dependant on expansion, and certainly if you look at the pax figures at the base I am familiar with, they are about 15% down on this time last year ( that is what is admitted so could be a lot worse) when 15% up would be the norm. So, in reality 30% down on what would normally be expected.
It will indeed be interesting to re-visit this in 1 years time, and I don't disagree, there is a possibility it could all end in tears. The tears though will be shared by many bods not connected to RYR too. Imagine what dumping around 2000 737 qualified pilots on the market would do to the terms & conditions elsewhere, not pretty methinks.
