Mickeyman,
Ryanair seem to have expanded on routes that are not sustainable unless the seats are virtually given away.
Which is, I think part of the problem. Ryanair are just not such good value anymore, here's my recent experience.
I travel to northern Sweden (Umea and Vilhelmina) which requires a change at Arlanda.
For a few years I took a RYR flight from STN to either of their "Stockholm" airports and put up with the hassle of having to get across the city becasue they were so cheap, in fact quite ofton the parking at Stansted cost more than the flight!
When Sterling operated out of EMA I used them as I'm on the doorstep and the time saving was massive even if the fare was more.
These days I use KLM out of BHX via AMS, usually the price is about the same as RYR when booked a week or two in advance, but the advantage is that I get to a hub for connecting flights and probably feel a little less like part of a cattle herd.
I've also just booked for two of us RTN to Malaga, RYR air fare 53.00, EZY 80.00, however the eventual price saw EZY come out 40.00 cheaper!
I'm not anti RYR, in all my years using them all I've ever had is one cancelled flight, so I have never had any real problem at all with them, however, unless you can avoid all their extras, which these days is quite ofton impossible, their bottom line cost bears no relation at all to the actual air fare and other alternatives become more attractive.