People give more credence to consumers' intelligence and memory than is evident in reality.
I think most business leaders now are aware of the "Ratner" incident and in more recent times looking at the Starbucks tax issue and re thinking their strategy.
Reality is if Ryanair had it right then why change?
The fact is that when you look at a fare rightly or wrongly many people are subconsciously add £50 or so to cover "extras"
The approach to eu261 delays and assistance is laughable despite charging a levy of €2.50 equal to in excess of £160 million a year. Worse still the reality that so few flights are delayed or cancelled is lost in the media and the public again think "Oh no what if it happened to me"
The boarding scrum has its advantages for the airline but not if you're a family of four on a longer flight to Tenerife.
The website and Captcha.... enough said
etc etc
But looking at the changes they've already announced and Imagine if Ryanair said Ok from now on.. any flight that is cancelled we will automatically hand out £50 pre paid cashline cards...No quibbles no questions and follow through on other changes that in the words of MOL "P**S people off" then I think they will keep their loyal fly at the lowest price passengers but retain and grow that segment of the market that is attracted to the likes of Easyjet, Jet2, Norwegian