Testing their customers' loyalty?
FR knows what their regular customers want (at a minimum):
Low fares.
Ontime flights.
No willy-nilly cancellations.
That's what their pax are loyal to, not just the name.
Once they have those and pax follow the rules everyone is happy. Change any of those and there's a new ballgame.
There has been a steady but small increase in fares over the past couple of years - something that can be lived with, they're still low - but the fare increases now showing up as mentioned are nothing short of outrageous for a low-fares airline. Maybe it's just a temporary glitch (try-on). We'll have to wait and see.