Low Cost Airline - Low Cost Flight : Ryanair

Ryanair operate a huge network in Europe, and are generally (but not always) the cheapest airline on the routes where they compete with another airline. They have hubs in Shannon, Dublin, Glasgow (Prestwick), Liverpool, London, Brussels (Charleroi), Frankfurt (Hahn), Stockholm (Skavsta), Milan Bergamo, Rome and Barcelona. They serve 82 other European destinations, with 209 routes. In order to lower travel costs, Ryanair uses small airports that can be quite far from the the city they purport to serve so check carefully your travel time and costs estimates.

Ryanair keeps extremely low prices setting a standard customer behaviour (tipically an airport to airport travel without on flight meal and hand luggage only) and placing additional fares for every addition you need. So you'll be able to catch a €20fare for a London - Milan flight, but you'll be heavily charged for on flight meal, excessive luggage weight and so on. If you need a basic and cheap transport service, Ryanair is definitely a good choice.

In order to allow passengers with hand luggage only a faster check-in, starting from march 2006 Ryanair introduced the possibility for them to check-in in advance via their website and a fixed fare €3.50 per checked suitcase. Luggage weight limits are 10kg for hand luggage and 15 for checked-in luggage.

Compared to most other budget airlines, Ryanair provides very limited compensation in the event of flight cancellations. Typically, Ryanair will only provide a replacement seat on a later Ryanair flight (which can depart up to 3 days later than the original flight), or a full refund of the single journey price. Alternative travel arrangements and accomodation is not normally provided by Ryanair. Passengers wishing to return on the same day are normally forced purchase a new non-advance ticket with a different airline, which can easily exceed the price of the original ticket by a factor of ten. Therefore, it is not advisable to travel with Ryanair if you're not insured against flight cancellation or if you have important work commitments the day after the return flight.

Also bear in mind that Ryanair is very stict about checking in no later than 40 min prior to departure. Passangers arriving at the check-in desk even one minute late have been known to be refused boarding, even if they only carried hand-luggage. When flying with Ryanair it is advisable to get to the airport early.