The other thing to note is how the aggression of airlines like Ryanair and easyJet has led to a reduction of costs.

The 20-minute turnaround is now common, so aircraft utilisation is high. Let's take a random example - aircraft EI-DAG, on 18th Feb:

FR0314 SXF 0715 - OTP 1030
FR0315 OTP 1055 - SXF 1210
FR4943 SXF 1310 - PMO 1545
FR4905 PMO 1655 - FCO 1810
FR4906 FCO 1845 - PMO 1955
FR6786 PMO 2020 - MRS 2210
FR6785 MRS 2235 - PMO 0015+1

So, that's 7 legs in 4 countries, with no defined hub. Everything is optimised. The cabin crew will clear as much as they can on descent (no seat pockets or seat recline to worry about on these planes), and the seats-to-crew will be at the most favourable possible ratio.

Ryanair will have negotiated as hard as possible for the best rates at each airport, down to using airstairs rather than the airbridge or ground stairs to save money. If you look at this list, there's only one secondary airport in there: SXF (Berlin Schoenefeld). All the others are primary airports, who were so keen to grab LCC trade from the secondaries, some of them even built dedicated piers or even terminals (like Marseille MP2) to allow them to match landing fees.

At the airport, almost everybody will have checked in online (as there's a financial incentive to do so) and so check-in will be mostly for checked luggage, and will be a quick scan of a barcode, attach tags and off it pops. Some will fall foul of inflated at-airport fees, but this is hardly a secret these days. Some airlines are automating this process too - eliminating more staffing expense (not that the airport staff are directly employed).

Look at the destinations. These are business routes as much as leisure. The LCCs have attacked this market from all sides. No major is going to fly PMO-MRS direct. FR are going for AZ's jugular by serving PMO-FCO. And the gap left by LH concentrating on FRA and MUC is certainly being filled by airlines like FR serving Berlin. And they're clever with their fares. A bundled business fare (still a nice, cheap economy flight) will include all your ancillaries. So you often get more than flying with a legacy airline. There's some schedule padding in there, but the only delay was FR4943 arriving 23 minutes late. Their experience in quick turnarounds managed to get the next flight back on track.

And then look at their yielding. The LCCs have analysed everything, down to the time of day that people are likely to be most price-sensitive. So, if Ryanair are offering €10 fares, they will be thinking one or more of these:

• I know the passengers on this route buy loads of ancillaries, so I'll recoup the difference.
• I know I'll get a load of business bundle bookings and little in the way of leisure, so I may as well fill up the remaining seats.
• It's summertime, and x% of passengers have checked luggage, so I've factored that in.

Of course, it could be a loss leader on a new/competitive route (although there's a limit as to what they're allowed to do) or it could be limited seats for a promotion (again, there's a limit). Subsidies from regional governments are no longer allowed.

And then there's the pay and conditions for employees...