Originally Posted by
NYTA
I also don't see that Ryanair has chased any of the legacy carriers out of Europe with the possible exception of Air Lingus.
Aer Lingus operates to more European/North African destinations now (over
70 outside Ireland at present, ignoring the transatlantic destinations) than at any time in its history.
Ryanair does indeed take some passengers from its competitors (though this effect is somewhat limited on routes where they favour way-out-of-town airports, i.e. Oslo/Torp, Paris/Beauvais, Frankfurt/Hahn), but their biggest impact is actually in growing [new] markets, or rather, creating markets where none previously existed. They have a knack for finding and creating new flyers, rather than just taking the flyers that are already using the incumbent airlines.