How 'minimum' is minimum?
SLF alert:
I live in Europe, and work/fly all over the place.
I find that the vast majority of European safety legislation is - if anything - overly conservative/protective. The national speed limit for cars in most places has remained essentially unchanged for the 35 years I've been driving, notwithstanding the quantum leaps made in vehicular design and safety. Hell, I'm not even allowed to have a medium-rare hamburger for fear of e-coli, or whatever.
My point is that the minimum safe fuel uplift, as required by EU and presumably NA law, is surely ALREADY conservative. If so (and I'd love to be corrected on this) then Ryanair's apparent policy of regarding the minimum uplift as a target is perfectly legitimate.
It's not as if Ryanair (or any carrier's) aircraft are running out of gas on even an occasional basis, is it?