The Future Without Ryanair

Unfortunately Ryanair get bad press and have done for many years regardless of what has been achieved and I unfortunately expect the same to continue.

Q. Would Ryanair be a loss to YOU the paying customer and the aviation industry in general?

Any Views Welcome.

Let's get the bad press thing in context first of all. I don't think anyone would bad mouth an airline who is selling tickets for £14.99, which is what the new lowest price seems to be. But because they give the impression of treating their customers with disdain, and sometimes going out of their way to make things difficult for their customers (the £60 airport re-print of Boarding cards was an example of this), this is all having an impact on Ryanair, who find themselves battling to keep prices lower than their more user-friendly competitors. The contemptuous attitude of their Chief Executive didn't help either, telling his passengers to pay up or shut up.
But I maintain that once the price incentive between these competitors and Ryanair lessens, or disappears completely, then Ryanair don't have anywhere to go because price is what makes Ryanair great, not customer service. Nor timing of flights (which seem to me timed around operational imperatives and not customer demand); location of airports; the intolerance of any mistakes in the booking process; and up until this week an unfriendly website which was difficult to navigate for the first time. So it's no coincidence that the drop in traffic recently have forced Ryanair to drop some of these practices.
Ryanair have forced the rest of the industry to re-examine their business models, and made the established airlines a little more price-sensitive. Ten years ago, I was paying twice as much as the fare is now between London and Barcelona, and who'd have thought that British Airways would be offering a discount on cabin baggage-only? This will be the long-lasting legacy of Ryanair.
In any case, I've got one huge reason for hoping Ryanair continue: I live near to Girona airport, and only Ryanair fly there from the UK. May they long continue to do so!

I fly Ryanair because I live 5 minutes away from Prestwick airport and they are the only airline that fly out of there. For that reason it would be a royal nuisance if they weren't there at all. However, as most destinations I go to I end up going to once and then that route seems to vanish, it's getting to be more of a nuisance than a help. Glasgow airport is too far to travel to and public transport home if your flight comes in in the early hours of the morning is useless.