H&S...... your comments do hold some water. We are now reaching a stage of maturity in the low cost market. The strongest have survived and we will now see changes in strategy that will eventually change some of the key characteristics of the LCC model. For several years now certain airlines have already been breaking the traditional LCC mold. AB joining an alliance and EZY's focus on Primary airports and frequency. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum the legacies have devalued their product to some extent and the whole gap between full service and low cost is becoming and will continue to become ever blurred.
Some of the legacies are coming through a tough period relatively well. I'm primarily thinking LH. BA etc aren't quite so lucky. But then Easyjet have performed extremely well. During what has been the deepest depression since the 1920's, they have not only increased pax numbers but also increased yields too. Jet 2 have become very "charter" of late and the two only serious players in the LCC market within Europe are EZY and FR. The market was always going to arrive at this eventuality, it was the game plan if you like. In maturity however we could see EZY (and even FR) adopting a whole new way forward.
I know many would love nothing better than to see the end of the Low cost carriers but it really isn't going to happen. The legacies are adopting more and more low cost attributes and it wouldn't surprise me if the two sides of the spectrum ended up meeting somewhere in the middle.