Barry, I am glad you are hostile to my prefered bunch of airlines….it would be a very boring forum if guys like you were not 😉 Not all non state airlines were failures, British Caledonian, Dan Air, Autair (later Court), British United, Derby (later BMI) Air Anglia (later Air UK) etc. Some, but not all of those you list failed because of bad management and bad financial decision making. I have always had a soft spot for Channel Airways, based as it was in the area I have lived in all my life, as was Lloyd International but by the end of its life Channel was an economic basket case illustrated best by the poor fleet decisions they made and less than secure contracts with the tour operator sector. Hunting Clan I believe went on to become part of BUA which in turn of course moved in with BCAL who in turn was part of the conspiracy to crush Freddie Laker, who whilst being a hero and I admired him, was no Saint. He made errors as we all do. Whilst there were non state casualties over the decades not all of the blame could be laid at the doors of BOAC and BEA, did not Cunard have something to do with the failure of British Eagle? along with the loss of substantial numbers of MoD contracts? I fully stand to be corrected on this. Having relatives employed by BOAC, Channel Airways, De Havilland HS Hatfield and the Handley Page Aircraft Company I have a great interest in the era as both my library and display model collection show. I wish I had been there but being born in ’58 I missed some!

Sorry black kettle, I disagree with your interpratation of my post. However this is an open forum and although I disagree with your reply, as the saying goes, I would defend to the death your right to express it. Passengers screwed? possibly although personally I have never felt screwed by a legacy carrier. There will always be bad apples in the barrel, ie: RYR. In my post ref the visionaries I meant those that founded the likes of Pan Am, British Airways ( the original, not the entity from the 80s) Eastern, TWA, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa etc etc, as opposed to those people that followed them. These people and their achievements deserve more respect and acknowledgement than that shown by MOL and some others, and if you honestly think that the fare structures employed by the so called “LoCo” operators is not fixing by another name then we certainly do look at this topic very differently. I can’t possibly comment on your choice of newspapers 😉

Methinks short memories or maybe too young in some cases.EI are now on the brink of collapse (see PPrune in last few days) and serving many of the budget airports abroad that the LO-COs get ridiculed for.Like BA,they’ve pulled in and out of numerous UK airports when it suited them (BRS/CWL/LPL about three times since 1960!!).How is this prestige?

Prestige from the point of view that EI unlike RYR does not expect to be handled for nothing, has to compete with the so called LoCos on a very uneven playing field as do most of the legacy operators and EI is at least a half decent name to have littering your apron.

Ryanair exists in a world of subsidies of one kind or another, ranging from cut price airliners and manufacturers support to cut price handling and ‘deals’ done with local authorities in various countries. Add to that the endless add on charges before you even get to plant your backside on the seat and you have a rough layout of the RYR business model. The patience of those providing the subsisies eventually runs out as does their money, resulting in the classic RYR strategy of “all the toys in the corner” when they don’t get their own way, usually resulting in withdrawal of service ie: Manchester. Some cases of this RYR behaviour have resulted in some provincial airports in different countries ending up with no service at all after RYR have driven the incumbent operator out of business or the airport by predatory pricing and other ‘practices’. I am neither too young or suffering from short memory but I am now over 20 yrs in the aviation field and I know a level playing field when I see one….and RYR has never played on one yet!

Since he is pulling out, i wonder how long before he starts false advertising at LBA “Welcome to Leeds-Manchester airport”.:dev2::diablo:

As soon as they finish re-labeling Stansted as Schiphol West! C’mon Aer Lingus….theres slots in that there Manchester, bring in some more prestige:D EMA…be careful.

Well done Manchester! Great to see an airport that will not be bullied by that crowd. Stand your ground on this MAN. RYR will only be happy if you handle them for zilch!…….they’ll be back you’ll see.

As above! That new MEA scheme looks great.

Well done. Love the Libyan CRJ.