Why Ryan Air is successful but Spirit Airlines isn’t?
Posted by Tiny-Mongoose3824@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 94 comments
In light of the Spirit airlines bankruptcy and liquidation, why was the low cost model of Spirit Airlines unsuccessful in the US? And by contrast, the equivalent airline in Europe, Ryan Air, is massively successful.
Why is it that both airlines that have similar models are experiencing drastically different outcomes?
Wonderful_Virus_6562@reddit
Ryan fills a niche but lucrative market in Europe. Keep in mind most countries in Eurooe are smaller than New York City population wise. So there’s no market for multiple airlines.
Even when countries in Europe do have more than 1, they strictly work routes to and from their base. (Like Air France will fly to NYC and back to France etc)
Ryan Air fill’s that “in between” in Europe, they don’t compete with Aer Lingus.
For instance Ryan Air runs flights from London (England) to Spain and countries like that, even though its technically an Irish airline.
The US on the other hand basically has two separate commercial aviation industries (you could even argue 3).
There’s international and domestic (and regional). The big 3 (American, United, and Delta) dominate the wide body/longhaulbmarket in the US. They also do domestic flights, but like to focus on high volume domestic routes (NYC Boston Miami San Fran LA Chicago Miami).
The big 3 then use their regional subsidiaries to fill those flights (so if you live in like Buffalo, theyll fly you to NYC on a small regional jet, then fly you to your destination).
Companies like Southwest, Jetblue, and Spirit exploited those “in between cities”. They made it so you can fly directly from smaller airports to bigger hubs and vacation hot spots.
Now that jet fuel prices have gotten higher overtime and especially the inflation from these last 2 administrations, Spirit and Southwest had to jack their prices up.
So a ticket from Boston to Miami might have been $50 on Spirit or Southwest a few years ago and on Delta/United/AA it would have been $150-$200 lets say.
That created a market.
Now that fuel prices and everything else have gotten higher from inflation, flying on United or Delta might only be $20 more than flying on Spirit or Southwest. So people are gravitating to the more prestigious airlines.
At the same, Spirit and Southwest don’t have a big international market to fall back on like Ryan Air.
They only have the domestic US market, and are getting pushed out by the big 3. There’s nobody in Europe that could do that to Ryan Air.
manugutito@reddit
New York City had a census-estimated population of 8,584,629 in July 2025. 22 European countries, including Switzerland, exceed that. You make it sound like Europe is a bunch of microstates...
viscount100@reddit
NYC metro area is 23m+
swakid8@reddit
Southwest bread and butter has never been cheap fares…. If you were to cross shop Southwest and a legacy ahead of time, it was often that Southwest was always the more expensive ticket….
Where they shined was more so flexibility and last minute cheaper fares historically…. Legacy airlines for longest time would charge an arm and a leg for a last minute walk up fare…. Southwest always was cheaper for this. They also for many years allowed folks to change their tickets and travel plans for no fees when the legacy carriers charged for change fees unless you had bought the fully refundable ticket….
I wouldn’t put Southwest in the same category in with Spirit and other ULCCs. They are a LCC matter fact, the og LCC.
dtdowntime@reddit
Ryanair is a larger airline overall, and market dynamics in Europe are different enough compared to the US where 2 very similar airlines have vastly different outcomes. Main reasons why include: Ryanair flies to a lot of small airports where they are the only airline flying to and from there, which gives them massive leverage in negotiations. They also avoid larger airports with higher landing fees and slot restrictions. Finally, there is much less (strong) competition with short haul flights in Europe. The competition in the air is not very strong, and many travellers choose Ryanair simply because of the price as most other airlines charge more but offer similar levels of comfort and service. The other competition they get is on the ground from trains, however many of Ryanairs routes are to and from places that are not easy to get to by train, or are far enough that the time saved by taking a train is often negligible.
NapsInNaples@reddit
I’d argue the opposite. Just based on my move from the us to Europe. My last year in the US I flew 60,000 miles 90% of them on American.
My first year in Europe I flew 30,000 (because I took trains a lot) and spread that across 19 airlines. Wizz air, eurowings, flybe, Lufthansa, air Berlin, etc
Flybe and air Berlin didn’t survive but there’s still a fair bit of competition. Especially if you include rail.
TheByzantineEmpire@reddit
There are a lot of European examples where Ryanair is the only option. Take Brussels to Ireland. With the national carrier (Aer Lingus) you can fly to Dublin. But not to say Cork (2nd biggest city!). You could take the train from Dublin to Cork, but Ireland is not known for its amazing rail infrastructure. Ryanair in this example is by far your ‘best’ option.
Craicriture@reddit
It's possibly just better run. Low margin, high volume businesses go VERY wrong when they go wrong because you're working on tight margins. You see that in retail quite regularly.
a_kato@reddit
My opinion is because USA doesn’t want or need a budget airline. The median and disposable income is extremely higher.
For example in Czech Republic, which is by no means the poorest, if you make 40k gross you are considered top 5-10% of income earners. Your net ofc is much lower.
So the budget you have is smaller for vacation. The prices in the USA from United for example much the prices in EU for roughly “same” flights.
So if the tickets are the same but the salaries are much higher, especially when talking about people who fly, why would I get spirit? A 100$ extra is nothing for me. For myself in the EU a 100$ is a lot of money
SuspiciousSugar4151@reddit
r/ShitAmericansSay
Vivid-Crab-4156@reddit
As someone who regularly flies with budget airlines in Europe, the "main" airlines are terrible at offering affordable flights for 1hr journeys.
Lufthansa or BA will charge 200 EUR, Ryanair may charge 40 or less.
_Yellow_13@reddit
Your money saved comes at the expense of the crew and Ryanair’s aggressive marketing.
On board sales, paying a pittance to airports to have there ac land there. In fact they’ll deal with the local community directly and say we’ll bring you x amount of tourists if you pay for us to fly aero planes here.
Take a look at any low cost airport. Horrible because there’s so little money to actually make it nice.
How much did ur taxi to the airport and train cost? The 20 euro flight costs than what u pay.
Vivid-Crab-4156@reddit
The airports I fly with Ryanair have train stations, no taxi required. Plenty of public transport so never been an issue
_Yellow_13@reddit
Ur missing my point.
What is the price of a train ticket Manchester to London?
Why do you think ur 1 or 2 hour flight is priced so ‘competitively’
No_Neighborhood_134@reddit
If you're in London and flying Ryanair, it'll be from somewhere like Stansted or Luton, not Manchester. They've got solid national coverage, it's part of the appeal.
_Yellow_13@reddit
I don’t care where he’s flying from or too.
The poster stated the ‘main’ airlines are terrible at affordable prices whereas Ryanair are cheaper.
vivid crab said, Ryanair are much cheaper but I’m asking him to think why. Are Ryanair so affordable because they have a great heart? Eh no.
Are other airlines who charge 200 bucks for a short haul flight profiteering? Well judging by there public accounts No.
Or could it be his cheaper Ryanair ticket is in part coming from Ryanair not paying staff the same? Using false self employed companies to hire pilots and cabin crew so as to avoid paying social and welfare taxes? (Well this is all documented and objectively true).
I then made the point if ur still unsure which it is. Take a look at a train or taxi price. If ur flight is less than half the price of that, where do u think the money is coming from.
So yes. Ryanair have done a great job to get the masses flying cheaply.
But make sure you take a minute to remember as to why.
Vivid-Crab-4156@reddit
I don't want to go to London? Trains from both London and Manchester to my final destination are equally priced. It does not matter.
_Yellow_13@reddit
Jesus fucking wept.
Okay. Enjoy ur morning or whatever time it is.
Vivid-Crab-4156@reddit
???
" Don't fly Ryanair you'll have to get a taxi!"
No I don't actually and I don't pay extra for trains
"Fucking idiot bro"
Manchester is a major international airport with public transport. You're acting like it's a backwater with a cafe and a taxi rank outside. Your point doesn't make sense
Different_Onion_1230@reddit
I work a senior operational role in Ryanair, MOL is truly schizophrenic about saving every last euro possible. Having a boss so hands on is the difference, love him or hate him, he knows exactly what needs to be done.
SakuraSqk@reddit
Does it make big difference of having built-in stairs in planes - for saving on gate costs and reducing turnaround time etc?
PestilentMexican@reddit
Yeah. That was one of their original ideas was flying to under utilized minor airports to save landing cost. When they started in late 90s this was their business model. I’ve since seen their planes at large airports but again now they are large, I believe the largest airline in Europe, and have negotiation power they at more main airports, but the low fares deal gets done by cutting cost wherever which landing fees certainly are.
Further having the option of having your own built in ladder means you don’t need to wait on a terminal opening to unload passengers you can park the plane on a stand and unload on the tarmac to a bus and load too. Essentially maintaining turnaround times so airplanes are flying making money and not sitting idle.
Wyciorek@reddit
And thanks them for that. Now I can fly all around Europe directly from my second-tier airport without wasting a day on two legs plus waiting in Warsaw/Frankfurt
NoFewSatan@reddit
Under-used is what you want, not under utilised
ILikeFlyingMachines@reddit
Yes. Otherwise they wouldn't order it that way.
lordtema@reddit
Absolutely. The airports they fly to helps as well.
spastical-mackerel@reddit
This. Southwest was awesome when Herb Kelleher was at the helm. Passionate about aviation, passionate about his company. Ryanair is obsessive about cost cutting, but they do it wisely. They don’t skimp on maintenance or safety, for example. Broken/crashed planes cost far more.
4BennyBlanco4@reddit
Because more Americans can afford full service carriers, they're not like the Europoors who wouldn't be able to fly but for €10 fares.
Suitable_Speaker2165@reddit
European airlines are actually and truly cheap. Spirit was only cheap relative to other American airlines but at the end of the day, still far too expensive compared to what you get in Europe.
Furt_the_Goblin@reddit
Ryanair is also very shrewd in playing the different european countries against each other. Here in Austria, Ryanair is currently demanding tax exemptions to keep Vienna as a regional hub. The idea being that they can move their hub for central/eastern europe to, say, Prague if they get better tax incentives there. Even Bratislava right next door would be a lot cheaper than Vienna. They'd lose out on a lot of connections to other airlines, but the general area the cover would remain pretty much the same. Bratislava is closer to Vienna than Frankfurt-Hahn is to Frankfurt itself, even advertising the flights as to/from "Vienna-Bratislava" wouldn't be entirely absurd.
And, yeah, the legacy carrier equivalents we have here ask for ridiculous prices on many short and medium-haul routes. Flying Ryanair is very frequently actually worth the annoyances it entails while Spirit wasn't cheaper by enougj of a margin.
Key-Monk6159@reddit
Spirit would be much more successful if they flew to Budapest for $99.
Happy-Table-9515@reddit
Difference between the UK and the US. WAY different. Ryanair couldn’t operate in the US currently. Also, we have more options, to shop I mean. Brits, not so much.
Tony_Three_Pies@reddit
Ryanair is an Irish airline…
Happy-Table-9515@reddit
Ireland is part of the UK……how can you be a top commenter?
Paqza@reddit
Getting Ireland and Northern Ireland mixed up is a very bad mistake to make. You couldn't be more wrong.
Happy-Table-9515@reddit
GFY telling me. I was BORN in Ireland and moved to Boston as an infant. A 31 year professional pilot and you’re going to preach to me? I think not.
rudedogg1304@reddit
lol . What does being a pilot for 31 years have to do with thinking Ireland is part of the UK?
rybnickifull@reddit
How were you born in Ireland and think it's in the UK?
Tony_Three_Pies@reddit
Born in Ireland but educated in the US which probably explains things.
lefrenchkiwi@reddit
Good luck convincing the Irish of that.
Happy-Table-9515@reddit
Seeing as I am, I’m not sure what convincing is needed.
lefrenchkiwi@reddit
6 counties make up Northern Ireland and are part of the UK. 26 make up the Republic, the country most people actually think of when you say Ireland. Guess which one Ryanair is from.
Happy-Table-9515@reddit
I love when braindead foreigners preach about my HOME COUNTRY. Telling me what is, or isn.t GFY.
Paqza@reddit
Seeing as you're what?
Tony_Three_Pies@reddit
That’ll be news to a lot of people.
Happy-Table-9515@reddit
Only stupid people.
PaisaLover@reddit
Ryanair is from the Republic of Ireland - an independent country, not Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.
As an Irish person you should be aware of the distinction.
Busy-Translator-8893@reddit
Ryan air is from Dublin, Ireland which is not in the United Kingdom. If you are not trolling then you are r/confidentlyincorrect
Happy-Table-9515@reddit
Doesn’t matter where they’re from asshat. They operate and are organized as a UK airline. Look at me arguing with a retard.
flickerdown@reddit
You’re an idiot. Northern Ireland is part of the UK; the Republic of Ireland is not.
Read a book, learn some history, touch some grass.
Happy-Table-9515@reddit
Are you ok?
Lumpy-Return@reddit
What’s that they say? Seagulls never follow Irish ships out to sea?
Wonderful_Virus_6562@reddit
Yea and also the average country in Europe is smaller than NYC population wise. The “international” market in Europe is nothing like it is in the US.
Guadalajara3@reddit
Something europe has that the US doesn't is remote stands and busses to the airplane, that saves operating costs. Also a lot of major European cities have provisional airports away from the main international airport that will primary be used by these low cost carriers and there is a lot of other transit connecting those provisional airports to the city, making it easier and more appealing to the customers and cheaper for the airline to operate.
More than that, im not sure how the inner workings, labor, network, schedule or anything like that is for the European low cost carriers
OperationAccurate154@reddit
Absolutely untrue
Honey-Entire@reddit
Have you even flown to any European airports? DFW is a 4th world country in comparison
OperationAccurate154@reddit
What are you talking about? I said nothing about the quality of the airport. I’m talking about remote stands. The guy I replied to said US doesn’t have them. I called out his mistake. Look it up. Spirit uses hard stands at DFW. LAX has hard stands. They’re all over US airports.
What the fuck does that have anything to do with an airport being a shitty 4th world country? Are you stupid or a bot?
Honey-Entire@reddit
And you ignored the rest of the comment about how low cost carriers in Europe rely on established public transit infrastructure that operates at very low costs. They may have been wrong about the specific fact but you’re missing the forest through the trees on the main post’s topic.
Once you land in DFW, how inexpensive and convenient was your bus trip to your final destination?
OperationAccurate154@reddit
Ok. So you’re saying you can take a bus straight from the airplane off the airport to your destination and not even go through the terminal. No where in the original comment was this said anywhere, because, no that isn’t a thing here. You get on a bus from remote stands that drop you off at terminals.
Hard stand bus rides to the terminal are very common in the US. In DFW it’s because of a lack of gate space as is the case with most other airports.
Again, specific buses to off airport location was not made specifically clear in the original comment. He only said you got on a bus, and that’s it. So I’m not wrong in my correction. OP was missing important context in his comment.
Difficult_Camel_1119@reddit
well, to be fair, on lots of Ryanair airports, you can in fact walk in less than 5 minutes from the plane across the tarmac (no bus to the terminal, they cost money) through the terminal to the bus station
Honey-Entire@reddit
Are you intentionally daft? You never answered my question so I’ll ask again:
And adding another one to help you understand the point isn’t about remote stands:
The point you seem to be missing is the conversation around connectivity of smaller airports to major city centers. But you’ve got a hard-on for talking only about whether or not remote stands exist at DFW.
Elean0rZ@reddit
No, you seem to have missed this part of the comment, which is what the other poster is referring to:
No one's saying there's one bus from plane to city, bypassing the terminal; they're saying European secondary airports still have good transit connectivity to nearby cities (not necessarily just buses, but the nature of the transit is really irrelevant provided it exists), and that therefore they're viable as low-cost centers for e.g. Ryanair in a way that secondary airports in the US are not.
OperationAccurate154@reddit
Alright. That’s not the point then either. My point was US AIRPORTS HAVE FUCKING HARDSTARD STANDS WITH BUS RIDES YOU OBNOXIOUS TWATS. I don’t give a flying fuck about infrastructure or public transportation or any being else. All the fuck I’m saying is hard stands exist in the us airports. Holy fuck you people are thicker than a fucking brick wall.
Guadalajara3@reddit
Sure there are places in the US that dont have jetbridges but the use of busses and a handstand are extremely rare and I've never heard of that at dfw. I am honestly surprised to hear you had that experience. They are extremely common in major European airports and Ryanair 737s are equipped with their own air stairs, negating the need for nearly any airport operating fees
OperationAccurate154@reddit
They are not very rare. They are quite common. Just mostly used by LLCs like spirit.
Literally right here in DFW is where they pick up and drop you off. Also there’s even more ramp space here as they have more hard stand spots. They’re used all the time.
Vinen@reddit
European Airports are generally far worse than US ones LOL.
F1shermanIvan@reddit
They’re the same size and Europe has double the population.
Former_Farm_3618@reddit
What nope, spirit is tiny.
Tony_Three_Pies@reddit
They mean Europe and the US are (roughly) the same size, but Europe has higher population density.
Wonderful_Virus_6562@reddit
Europe is a continent, US a country. The states in the US are the same size as the countries in Europe
Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit
EU is a single market, which actually allowed for an Irish airline to expand all over Europe.
For all intents and purposes, if you look at market size, there are more people in Europe than USA.
Wonderful_Virus_6562@reddit
you’re not comprehending what this thread is about….
jello_sweaters@reddit
They are, you’re not.
Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit
I thought it was about why Ryanair can be much moremsuccessful (in a market with much larger population) compared to Spirit?
jello_sweaters@reddit
Europe is Ryanair’s customer base, and has 400 million MORE customers than the United States has over a larger area.
States and countries are irrelevant to that math.
Wonderful_Virus_6562@reddit
Europe is a continent… USA is a country
T33-L@reddit
Irrelevant. Most countries in the European continent are part of the European Union single market. Ryan air, as an umbrella company is one company to cover the entire market (although it does it by splitting into subsidiaries to handle non-EU European countries).
The population of Europe (continent) is over double the population of the USA. The population of the economic entity of the EU is still a fair bit bigger than the USA.
ergo, the market for Ryan air to tap into is in theory much bigger than spirit.
Wonderful_Virus_6562@reddit
You’re not comprehending what this post is about.
Instead you’re arguing with the fact that the US is a country and Europe a continent…
T33-L@reddit
Crazy that you’re saying the words ‘not comprehending’ while showing a total inability to comprehend something.
The post is about why a EUROPEAN low cost carrier is successful when a US LCC isn’t.
It’s completely irrelevant that the USA is a country and EUROPE is a continent.
It’s completely relevant that the EU is a single market and so directly compares to the market of the USA.
jello_sweaters@reddit
Lots of solid answers here.
One to touch on further - Ryanair pays a LOT less to fly Paris-Beauvais to Warsaw-Modlin than Air France pays to fly Paris-CDG to Warsaw-Chopin, and population density is such that customers will go to those more-distant or less-served airports.
Spirit still pretty much pays the same that United does to fly LaGuardia-O’Hare, and if they tried to start flying Long Island to Waukegan and calling that the same thing, customers would laugh them out of the room.
shepherds_pi@reddit
Look at where Ryanair lands in Paris.. Not CDG.. but Beauvier... You gotta take a bus to it.. And the airport terminal is tiny.. Ryanair doesn't use jetways.. They have their own ladder system. Plus.. their flight crew is incentivized to turnaround ASAP. ( I have even seen a pilot with a vacuum cleaner ..)
In the US, the airports have a lot of power, and charge a lot in landing fees etc.. Ryanair however, have a different "attitude" to airports.. They know that these smaller airports won't survive without flights AND passengers.. the car rental companies, the restaurants, the parking lots.. They all NEED airlines like Ryanair to land there.. So.. your flight might be cheap.. but the €9 sandwich at the airport.. thats what keeps the airport open..
By-Eck@reddit
Airline economics fact 1: airliners don't make money sitting on the ground.
Quick turnarounds can mean the aircraft can make an extra flight rotation in a day compared to legacy airlines working to 40-60 minutes turnarounds. That improves revenue per aircraft, lowering flight prices. The crew helping by cleaning etc shortens the turnaround and reduces costs, lowering flight prices.
I spent a while dispatching Ryanair flights and trying to achieve 25 minute spins. Let's not forget that Southwest virtually invented the short spin, 10-15 minutes back in 1971 I believe.
I found a lot to admire about what they do and how they do it. The commitment of the crew is part of that. AND Ryanair does it being one of the safest airlines IN THE WORLD. Ryanair has an impressive business model. But we don't have to like the product, and we don't have to buy it. I don't like the legroom, a long flight is like a penance for me. But I still admire Ryanair as a business.
And expensive sandwiches are a fact at every European airport, Ryanair or not.
Ok-Stomach-@reddit
not the same thing and not comparable, Ryan air was explicitly modeled after southwest which is still doing very well in the US.
Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit
Ryanair and Southwest in 2026 are miles apart in terms of business models.
Ok-Stomach-@reddit
maybe but it was explicitly founded as a European southwest, some features still remain like massive use of secondary airports, etc. of course companies find their own path as they grow
Tiny-Mongoose3824@reddit (OP)
Yeah but Southwest is abandoning its low cost model
Silly-Low6019@reddit
Because Ryanair(one word) aircraft doors are secure. :)
Ryanair remains in business by adopting an extreme low-cost model, acting as Europe’s lowest-cost producer. They do relentless cost-cutting, and charging fees for services (luggage, seating), using secondary airports with lower fees, and operating a high-utilization, single-type fleet (Boeing 737).
Former_Farm_3618@reddit
Spirit airlines is/was 1/3 the size of Ryanair. When you’re making razor thing margins, Ryanair can actually make money being 3 times the size!
Ryanair also has the ability to negotiate a lot of its owns costs with airports and suppliers being so big. Why would an airport give spirit a discount to operate 20 flights/day when a major operates 200.
I also think labor costs are less at Ryanair as well.
IM_REFUELING@reddit
Pilot pay is way lower across the board in Europe so that's not surprising. I have no idea what the ground crew and FA pay situation is over there but I suspect it's similar.
Apprehensive_Cost937@reddit
The cost of living in large part of Europe is much lower compared to USA, too, to be fair.
Paqza@reddit
Engines. Ryanair didn't get hammered by Pratt and Whitney geared turbofan unreliability.
upbeatelk2622@reddit
As a long-time avgeek, I'm going to pitch you the theory that Ryanair is in fact much stingier than Spirit.
I would also guess that the US majors are much better at doing basic economy fares than the European majors. Europe is full of tidbits like Lufthansa charging 600 euro for an 1-hour flight but saying tea/coffee would hurt their bottom line.
blackgenz2002kid@reddit
I literally watched a video that lays it out pretty nicely but more from the perspective of the cost for flying with Ryan Air vs Spirit/Southwest/lower cost carrier. basically cheaper airports to fly from, and better government support
here’s the link: https://youtu.be/76VKioU-fsY
pmainc@reddit
All the videos of passengers fighting on board and at the airport did in Spirit.