Also, if flying from the North of England/Midlands there is the option of BMI Baby which is priced comparably to Easyjet (flies out of Manchester and East Midlands among others). I've used both airlines and been more or less on time each time I've used them, not to mention happy with the service.

Ryanair as a company seems to have a real attitude problem and gets a lot of bad press here on FT but don't discount them if they'll get you where you want to go.