Now the planes are just grounded showing that the true reason is no demand anywhere. Well how come Ryanair havnt opened a huge base in any of these countries recently? No Demand - simple explanation.
Ryanair it's the airline of the numerous missed opportunities. It's suffering as a result the firm's own strategy fixed on cost reduction only. No demand? Blame it on nobody else but their own policies.
Without any doubt, they've made a tremendous work to achieve the low cost base. They made a great (albeit controversial) work negotiating with the airports, stoke good deals with them, have succeeded in keeping costs low across the board. Having ace up their sleeve they simply forgot something. Long ago, FR should have start thinking more about the needs of their customers.
Technically, for pax the cost reduction means nothing (how it's been achieved). Pax will look for a carrier that is not only cheap, but also kind of... more subtle, friendly, providing more versatile connections all over the continent (to give pax opportunity to travel where they want, not FR), sympathetic, caring. While the final ticket price does mean much, it shouldn't be the only reason to travel. It doesn't cost so much to use some other marketing tools, they cannot be neglected. The magic of cheapness is not enough to fill the planes, many people would love to fly inexpensively, but are unable to accept this kind of cheap propaganda and general attitudes offered by FR.
The demand is weak nowadays, true. The war between carriers to get more pax in spite of market stagnation cannot rely on low prices alone. In fact, such extremely one-sided policy seemingly diminishes the carrier's prospects. Ryanair still could grow, but a radical face-lifting operation is required.