I have made my choice after repeated attempts at getting a decent price/flight by Ryanair and tend to use Monarch.
Seems they have made a choice on cards this year that makes sense (up to a point)
Feel free to use Ryanair, it certainly IS a democracy, but trust me, I will never use Ryanair again! Pay for this, pay for that, pay interest for this, extra for that!!!!
It's (in my opinion and experience- READ THIS) that it is cheaper for Me to use Monarch. In fact in previous years the old Dinosaur BA were cheaper for the trip and luggage I required.
As for strikes, only airlines "protected" by unions are able to strike. Unions DO work with airlines, but sometimes when you see bosses, shareholders, managers get rises of 10-40% but the workers who actually are the face and revenue bringers in that airline get told, "Sorry no money available - so no pay rise", even though they claim €5bn profit then maybe they have a claim for strike action.
As SLF, I would back the crew in any strike action even if it affected my work/holiday. I can always sort out work or holiday another time, but the impact of 0% pay rise is affecting normal people, highly trained people, but it seems not the managers and shareholders!!!!
An airline goes bust, crew and staff struggle but the top echelon either start a new airline or move onto another airline. Sad.