ASFKAP, I mentioned the tax because that is why they say they are not expanding in the UK. If you look at the LBA base apart from Dublin there isn't a single UK/Ireland route - Ryanair are only interested in expanding into Europe and to countries who are making concessions on charges e.g. Spain, Portugal taxes etc. Like it or not, thats how its going. If they start increasing charges, he'll go elsewhere and so it continues. I know everyone on here would love to see Ryanair go bust or whatever else, but believe it or not there is great demand for alot of these services, especially inter-europe routes e.g. between France, Italy, Portugal etc where historically its been high fares and flag carriers.
The numbers of pax I have flown of late has been unbelievable, I can honestly say I haven't flown an aircraft with less than 120pax, I keep a record and the average is 162 (apart from 1 or 2) for at least the past 6 months. This is including a lot of 6 sector days. Obviously we dont know the yield on these but make no mistake - Like them or hate them, Ryanair is expanding and making serious amounts of cash! 319Million Eur is an incredible performance while getting 2/3 new planes a month and in the middle of a recession.