"Nothing expands forever"
too true - but they've got a long way to go yet. Large swathes of mainland Europe still untouched by lo-cost operators. UK market may be almost saturated (Ryan & Easy can't even give away all the seats in their winter promos). There will be many years of opportunities for them yet, and in the meantime they get to take out a minor competitor at an absolute snip and convert STN into a fortress by taking over the slots... which in turn forces Easy into LGW (more expensive ??, not sure). It's a great move.... KLM must have been desperate to get rid to accept such a low bid.
Southwest still growing after a couple of decades, suggests more than enough life left in Ryanair for some time to come, although it does raise an interesting point > we haven't yet hit a point where an established lo-cost operator is unable to continue growing at 'traditional' levels. What happens when that situation arises - we'll have to wait a long time to find out, but my guess is they turn into a new 'major' with all that entails.