Easyjet with carry 47 Million people in 2009, Ryanair will carry 65 Million, BA will carry 32 Million......just who are the big boys ?
The Legacy carriers only moved because they were forced to, some countries use other means to hold on to their carriers i.e Air France and slot protection at CDG and Orly, Alitalia as was with Govt backing, BA with LHR slots.
This whole thing about comparing LCC with the so-called 'legacy' carriers is just a farce. Their business model is different. Many passengers on the BA or AF short/medium haul are actually connecting to another long-haul destination, which LCC will never do, despite the garbage O'Leary says.
Rather, it is on point-to-point services that LCC really compete with traditional airlines. This helps bring fares down, which can only benefit the customer.
Ryanair's business model is based on local authorities/employees/trainees/passengers subsidising the cheap fares, and on a massive increase in capacity to boost passenger numbers. I fear overcapacity will soon be significant enough for the business to become unsustainable. Especially as the worst of the recession will be upon us during the summer. I really think LCC's strenghth is overestimated by a few orders of magnitude.
And by the way there is no so-called slot protection at CDG, only at ORY