Ryanair/easyjet are still growing stupendously fast in the EU, and Norwegian is bringing that model to transatlantic flights. People love it. Ryanair grew at 12% yoy last month and hit a 94% load factor. They've went from 0 to 120m+ pax in about 20 years.
The thing is basically people are incredibly price conscious on booking flights. It's commoditized with the way people search for flights. Arguably this is because the industries IT systems are so old school that data such as seat pitch can't be easily syndicated so 3rd parties can show it, but I'm not sure if people would care enough.
Actually, being tall I really like Ryanair for the simple fact that their seats don't recline. Don't have to worry about somebody in front of me smashing my knees.
I flew 4.5 hours on Jet2 last week and was so pleased when I realised the same. One of the most comfortable flights I've ever had and as far as leg room goes I had more than on a 12 hour flight to Singapore in June - the seat itself on the Singapore flight was more comfortable but having the person infronts head in my nose was not pleasant!
Amazingly I found Norwegians 787 to JFK one of the best (and cheapest) flights I'd taken recently. Also not using Heathrow is a huge plus for me, at least until crossrail opens.
I flew with Ryanair for the first time in years last week, I was also pleased by this! Although the seats do seem surprisingly thin and wobbly (especially with small kids bouncing around in them).
I also like that. And additionally, they don't have the worst seat pitch either. In a recent trip I took flights with Vueling, Iberia and Ryanair. Vueling was excruciating torture (it always is, but it was the only airline serving that route, so unavoidable). Iberia was somewhat milder torture. Ryanair was actually quite OK, at least I could fit in the space without physical pressure from the seat in front if I placed my legs at a particular angle.
I genuinely think Ryanair are awesome for business. We run a small human rights NGO startup and there is no way we could do nearly as much without Ryanair.
Compared to most rubbish US carriers like United...They are cheap (you don't care if you miss a flight too much for a meeting), they take off and (more importantly) land pretty much on time. The airplanes seats are decent, the website and app have gotten much better and they have calmed down some of the more annoying crap like jingles and stuff.
I'd rather say that Ryanair wins because it flies to places where no one else does. I don't fly with them because they are cheap - I fly with them because when I need to go home it's either a 3h ryanair flight or a 3h flight with someone else + 5-6h train journey. There's zero competition unless you only fly between capital cities.
The thing is basically people are incredibly price conscious on booking flights. It's commoditized with the way people search for flights. Arguably this is because the industries IT systems are so old school that data such as seat pitch can't be easily syndicated so 3rd parties can show it, but I'm not sure if people would care enough.