Rich-UK said on May 16, 2005 13:54:

Hi StillFar!

I’ve travelled by Ryanair many times. I’ve flown to Bologna, Torino, Valladolid and Brussels for less than £1 each plus tax! As far as I understand, their punctuality is excellent. Of course anyone can tell you that they arrived on time or were late when they travelled with them, but I understand that their statistics are better than Easyjet (the UK’s rival budget airline) and British Airways. The disadvantage of Ryanair is that they often fly to small airports, which are further from the city centre than the main airport, e.g. it’s somewhat tenuous to called Stansted “London Stansted” - the airport is in the depths of Essex. However, there is a fast direct train route to London called the Stansted Express, so it takes ~45 minutes to London Liverpool Street. Unfortunately for you, Stansted is on the opposite side of London to Gatwick. You can take the train for £22 single: the Stansted Express to Tottenham Hale, the London Underground to Victoria then the Gatwick Express to Gatwick. The trains are every 15 minutes during the daytime and the journey takes just under 2 hours (note that British trains are markedly less reliable than their planes!). Alternatively you can travel by National Express coach directly. There are 1 or 2 buses every hour, with a journey time of just under 3 hours, and the cost is £24.50. I like Ryanair a lot because it has given me some great travelling opportunities, so if the price is right for you, and you can take the time and money to travel across London, then go for it. I don’t think that their punctuality is a problem.

I hope that this helps, Rich ;-)

Edit: you can e-mail me if you have some more questions (address in my profile)

ncurran said on May 16, 2005 16:09:

Ive flown with ryanair many times, and never had any problems. I’d much rather pay a quarter of the price and miss out on a crappy airline meal and allocated seat. The only disadvantage is that they tend to fly from smaller airports that are further from the cities you are flying to, so its worthwhile checking out how long it is going to take and how much it will cost to get from the airport to your final destination. Also you can only check in 15kg, rather than the 20kg it is for most other airlines, and they are pretty strict with this limit. I have a friend who had to pay a small fortune in excess luggage, which ended up costing her more than the flight itself. So make sure your check in luggage doesnt weigh more than 15kg

StillFar said on May 16, 2005 17:01:

you guys are great, that’s more info than I expected! Thanks :D

eBay said on May 17, 2005 07:19:

@Santi

It was the Airlines fault. In their user agreement, or terms and conditions, they state something along the lines, that you have to scedule anough time when getting a conecting flight and that the company will not be held responsible for latenesses etc. That is the downfall with RyanAir and where they make a lot of money. But if you can get a direct flight with them, this is not going to be a problem, obviously. ;-)

Sparvogamarie said on May 18, 2005 19:40:

I’ve flown with Ryan Air and there was no problems. But like a few ppl said, it’s a pain in the ass that they only fly to airports that are miles from anything. It usually costs more to get to the airport than the flight itself, for example here in Stockholm it costs about 22 euro to get to the other airports, then you have to pay again if you’re going to London.