Ryan Air

Love their app. Easy check-in (up to a week ahead!). Very easy to change flights, etc. Flights themselves were good. That said, we sat in the Palermo Airport for 6 HOURS as our flight to Rome was delayed again and again and again. Purposely booked it in the morning, to avoid airport worker strikes in the afternoon. Flights before and after ours left just fine. No explanation. FWIW.

Made me laugh. :)

It’s a regular European budget airline. Very reliable. You have choices to make when buying your ticket as you can choose different levels of what is included. Read carefully and think about what your needs are - don’t take inclusion of anything for granted. Once you have done that, it works like all airlines.

Ryanair carries about as many passengers per year as Southwest, which is the 3rd biggest airline in the US.

Sat away from the gate in Rome for 7 hours. July. Engines off, doors open. Near riot. Police on the plane. Flight attendants disappeared. Oh yes, no explanation. I just wanted to get to Catania. Is that asking too much?

RyanAir is safe as far as I know, and I have no reason to think it has more difficulty with delayed arrivals than its competitors. The problem, for me, is that the company tries so very hard to penalize it customers. If you have a paper boarding pass and manage to lose it before getting on the plane, RyanAir will charge you at least 50 euros to print a new one. In some (most?) airports, RyanAir requires non-EU passengers to find a special desk somewhere (not the regular check-in counter) to show their passports. If you miss the early drop-dead be-at-gate time due to the game of hide-and-seek, you will have to buy a new, full-fare ticket.

I'd use RyanAir if it were my only choice or if it were much, much cheaper than the alternatives (which I think it often is, especially if you are traveling with a small, light carry-on bag). Otherwise, it will get none of my money. I've managed to avoid it so far. I'd certainly not fly RyanAir to save $25 or $50.

Have flown with them twice. Never had an issue. Both times noticed folk repacking or adjusting luggage before checking. ??? Website information seems straight forward. Use the app to checkin and also to pay in advance for any bags you intend to check. Flights were on time.

Have flown them a couple times. No problem. Just know that you’re getting a low-cost, no frills ticket. As others have said, read the instructions on the website carefully. Buy with your eyes open and you’ll be fine.

Flew from Bergamo Italy to Budapest Hungary round trip about a month ago - enjoyable flight with no problems other than a 30-minute delay in Bergamo. Would fly them again.

Probably the airline I use most (2-3 times a year). IMO it's not really better or worse than any low cost European airline (Easyjet, Vueling, Norwegian, Wizzair etc.)

Be very careful to read the T&Cs. Don't try and cheat the baggage system. Be prepared to constantly deal with the airline trying to sell you overpriced snacks and drinks, lottery tickets, duty free etc Check you are flying into an airport that is at least near to your destination (Ryanair used to fly into e.g. Girona for Barcelona, Treviso for Venice)

Overall, if you follow their rules, you can get extremely cheap flights for putting up with some minor inconvenience.

We prefer EasyJet but Ryan is reliable. However on Ryan more than just about any other budget carrier expect each and every rule to be strictly enforced. Carry-on size & weight, online check-in, if they have the rule on their website then you'll pay up if you don't follow it 100%. Spend some time looking at Ryan complaints and you'll learn about rules you may not have realized they have.

Last year we chose EasyJet vs Ryanair for flights from London to Catania and Palermo to Naples. When we booked EasyJet a few months in advance I paid for every extra: best seats, extra carryon, check in luggage etc, sold as bundles. It meant our ~$30-40 advertised price was more like >$100 but we were fine with that for peace of mind not worrying about luggage etc. Other family members used Ryanair FCO-Catania and ended up missing their flight due to late inbound flight from the US, so they had to rebook at much higher price. BUT truthfully that wasn't Ryanair's fault and they didn't pay extra for refundable/changeable tickets. Another family member hadn't read the fine print about having the boarding pass (he wasn't using the app and had to pay to have the boarding pass printed). Again as others have said, read carefully and follow all of the instructions.

RyanAir is safe as far as I know

Unless you're a Belarusian democracy activist…

You'll get multiple answers here, and there are those that think they are amazing and those that avoid them at all cost. Are they reliable? They will get you from A to B, eventually. Lately their punctuality has been pretty bad. But they are safe, EU has high standards for aviation safety. They are a low cost airline though so don't expect much, read the terms and conditions carefully, not doing so can be expensive.

As a low cost airline they also have rather short turn around times meaning a bigger risk of acculumated delays over a day. And while they do use some major airports, in many places they use small secondary airports that can be far away, and expensive to get to, from the city Ryanair claims to fly to. And when you compare the cost, make sure you compare the full cost of a Ryanair flight, with all the add ons you want. They also almost never use jetways so you'll board the plane by stairs. There has also been reports about Ryanair being very reluctant to pay compensation according to the EU 261 rules.