The vast majority, who book ahead don't pay thoise prices. Peak time cheap seats will always be rare and snapped up quick (on pretty much any airline).

This seems a bit self-contradictory. If "peak time cheap seats will always be rare", how do the "vast majority, who book ahead" manage not to pay the higher prices ?

The two times I've suggested flying Ryanair anywhere to my wife, once we've picked ourselves up off the floor from laughing so hard, wiped the tears from our eyes, we went ahead and booked ourselves on BA :D

Not really. Seats are sold in a "stepped" manner - i.e. 10 @ 0.99, 10 @ 3.99 etc., etc. So as the cheapers seats sell out, the price goes up to the next level. By booking early you get access to the cheaper fares. The amount of these cheaper seats varies from route to route (i.e. you are unlikely to find 0.99 fare on FR's more popular routes such as DUB - LGW route, which will be priced slightly higher as those planes are nealrly always sold out).

As the time of departure approaches and the plane fills up, most of the seats in the cheaper price bands are long gone, and you are purchasing seats in the higher price bands. The majority of seats on LCC's will normally be sold in advance and at the cheaper prices, meaning that most of the passengers will have obtained a fare which represents much better value than someone buying last minute seats at a higher cost.

I think we all understand yield management.

What you're describing is a situation where peak time cheap seats are not "rare". They simply tend to sell earlier than on non-peak flights.

I have no idea whether or not this is true on FR, and I don't think I'm itching to find out.

Except possibly Hahn, Germany (HAH), I don't think there's a reasonably sized city within 70 miles of that place. Of course, they call it Frankfurt-Hahn, I think Frankfurt is at least two hours away from there. :D

So this also applies to London, UK then?

LHR and LCY are the only two airports inside the M25.

LTN - 34 miles north of London but called London Luton
LGW - 29 miles south of London but classed as London Gatwick
STN - 38 miles north-east or so of London but called London Stansted

Also PIK - Glasgow Prestwick - 32 miles south west of Glasgow !!!

Not quite the same thing. It's not just about distance. STN may be a fair way from the centre of London, but it is a designated London airport with a dedicated train link. A lot of airports were deliberately built a fair way from the towns they serve

LBC,on the other hand, is not an out-of-town airport for the city of Hamburg. It belongs to the city of Lübeck (a city, not a suburb of Hamburg). Calling it "Hamburg Lübeck" is like referring to Liverpool Airport as "Manchester Liverpool" (or vice versa!). Ryanair thinks it can just steal an airport from Town A and give it to Town B...

Or, in the case of Copenhagen-Malmo, steal the airport from Country A and give it to Country B.

But at least they've stopped (been made to stop?) that.

Just about every other airline on operates on this same premise. They don't make money from the person paying $150 return on a 1000 mile trip who booked 6 months out. They make the money on the two or three people who had to book 6 hours before the flight left and might have paid $1000+ return for the same seat.

But other airlines appreciate, by and large, that those who fly with them (regardless of whether they paid 1 Euro or 500) are customers who deserve clean cabins and competent staff and who deserve to be treated with courtesy and respect.

Try to complain about anything to Ryanair, no matter how justified, and the stock reply is "But we are the cheapest".

Yes, just about every low-fare airline operates on this principle.

But most major/network airlines don't. They tend to make their profits from selling premium cabin seats for premium fares, whether they're sold earlier or later in the sales cycle. The economy cabins are basically cost-paying fodder which, if they can be sufficiently filled, allow the airline to fly more premium seats on any particular route.