I've flown Ryanair lots of times in the past and never had a horrible experience with them. I'm playing to fly Ryanair again next week.... I was on an Aer Lingus flight from Southend to Dublin at the end of January and didn't have a problem with the airlines either. The one crew member was extremely pleasant.

Now they're down to only one crew member? No wonder they're cheap.

Aer Lingus ATR-42s only have the one cabin crew member, plus two flight crew.

This could not have been a pleasant experience.

http://www.expressen.se/gt/ryanair-g...nga-toaletter/

(Click on the "Translate" option to read in English.)

I've had good luck with RyanAir in the past, mostly between The Netherlands and Spain, but not this time.
We flew Alicante Eindhoven on June 25, scheduled departure time 8:15AM.

RyanAir boarded the plane (full), then announced that the French Air Traffic Controllers were on strike and there would be a delay of 2 to 3 hours. They knew full well that the plane would not leave but boarded anyway ("standard procedure"). I know the delay was not caused by RyanAir.

The wait was awful. The plane finally departed at 11:15 AM, after a 3 hour wait locked up in a plane (luckily the boarding door stayed open).
The flight attendants were very nice and understanding but the bad guys are of course the invisible decision makers: keeping all the passengers locked up in a plane is a lot easier (and probably cheaper) than having them wait in the terminal.

When we arrived in Eindhoven, I found an email from RyanAir, sent at 10:30 or so, at least 2 hours after the initial delay, informing us of our rights. The pilot never gave passengers the option of deplaning. Also, we were never explained why RyanAir would not fly around France (probably because it costs more fuel). I was about to bolt when they announced a departure time and started preparing the cabin. Since I was flying with family, I felt very limited in my options.

All passengers were very well behaved too; it seems that most people living in Europe are used to this kind of abuse.

Anyone in Europe knows if they are required to pay compensation for keeping passengers locked up in a plane for 3 hours (even though the delay was not their fault)

My conclusion: RyanAir is ok when there are no problems but they are awful when things don't go according to plan (just look at the Sweden Malaga flight around the same time). They just don't care about the well being of their customers.

Is there still a special procedure for NON-EU/EWS citizens flying withing Schengen coungtries? They used to need an extra stamp on the bording pass before going to gates. I wonder how that would work with mobile bording passes.

You still have to be checked out. I don't know what/where they stamp.

I love Ryanair. I can fly Dublin-London Gatwick return every month for €40. Ridiculous value.

I don't like those awful Air Explore planes they're leasing at the moment. They're like a throwback to the 80s /