PEOPLE who knock Ryanair are either too young or too forgetful to remember what life was like before it revolutionised air travel in Ireland. In the early 1980s, when British Airways and Aer Lingus operated the London run on a split profit cartel with the two airlines sharing the proceeds no matter how many passengers each had carried, a walk on fare (which was effectively restricted to Club class only) would cost £240. Notionally there were walk on fares at a lower price, but they were so few that spur of the moment travellers, who had to bury an aunt or visit a sick hamster, were obliged to travel Club Class at cost of about £1,000 in today's money.
In time, deregulation began to liberate the traveller from the predatory pricing of monopolists and the cartel - but not before Aer Lingus wiped out the competition from Avair with a series of cross subsidised pricing assaults on whatever routes Avair was operating on. There have been few more ignoble moments in the history of state enterprises in Ireland. Avair went to the wall, and Aer Lingus recovered its cherished monopoly.
The halcyon days could not last one deregulation threw a weasel into the cosy henhouse of cartels. But the old monopoly relationship between Government and Aer Lingus still stuck to its bizarre old ways as long as it could; little baby Ryanair submitted its application to begin cross channel operations, the Government passed it on to Aer Lingus to hear its opinions.
Days of despair
Do you remember those days? Days of sluggishness and despair. The economic history of Ireland in the 10 years since then could be summarised in two words. One is Ballygowan. The other is Ryanair. Both are examples of unsupported Irish enterprise finding and developing markets which others said did not exist.
Ryanair survived through the courage and determination of Tony Ryan and his family, and it has now revolutionised travel costs and travel expectations. The plain people of Ireland now assume they will be able to fly rather than have to experience the stark horrors of bus and train and boat and train and bus, finally arriving at their destination with the milkman, foul and sleepless and close to murder. Ryanair has brought the residents of Waterford and Kerry and Mayo close to their families in Birmingham, London and Manchester, unmurderous and fresh as that other byword for the new Ireland.
Easy profits
Ryanair has also attacked routes where soft and easy profits have been made by established carriers milking the profitable club class business sector especially to Brussels, where airlines have luxuriated in an extravagant culture of civil servant Euro excess. Meanwhile, others not doing an indolent and EU subsidised backstroke through this vat of gravy were being forced to pay these unnaturally high prices. And of course couldn't.
Maybe one day some economist will be able to work out how much the cosy Government subsidised Aer Lingus monopoly cost the Irish economy in lost revenue, lost business opportunities, lost tourism - but of course it is probably incalculable.
And Aer Lingus itself was the victim of its own monopoly. It developed practices which were sustainable only within a monopoly environment. It has net yet freed itself or those practices. Unless it does, the future is Ryanair.
Maybe the future is small airports too. I have written before of the joys of London City Airport, which is like arriving at Hendon aerodrome in 1949. The airport manager is almost there holding onto his hat to welcome the passengers individually as they step down off the plane amid the swirl of engine backwash. The other week I flew Ryanair (£56 return) to Beauvais. Visits to Charles de Gaulle airport, like Heathrow, tend to leave one with an ineradicable sensation of inhabiting a Springbok's armpit for a month. One is tempted to call in the fire brigade and be hosed down for an hour or so afterwards. But that, of course, will not replace the year that has been lopped off your life expectancy by the sheer stress of the place.
Beauvais is as stressless as a siesta yawn. After you arrive at this little airstrip, the plane - it is a Boeing 737, but to catch the spirit of the place it should be a de Havilland Dragonfly biplane - virtually ferries you to the luggage carousel, and within moments you are in the open air. We rented a Europcar through Ryanair, and it was as cheap, as, if not cheaper than anything in Paris.
Magnificent cathedral
Most people on our flight seemed content to catch the bus direct to Paris. That is a shame, because they missed the town of Beauvais, which is a real jewel. But enchanting as are its old buildings and little streets and cobbled squares, with their sun lit open air cafes, they do not compare with the truly magnificent cathedral, which must be one of the great architectural marvels of Europe. Perhaps in expiation for some terrible sin, the cathedral sought to be closer to, God than its height and width really should have permitted. It is more of a ladder heavenward with stainglass ornamentation on the way up and, nowadays anyway, a pronounced wobble that is being prevented from being a topple by emergency buttressing.
Have no fear. It is safe, and is a true wonder - perhaps the most stunning cathedral I have ever seen. Beauvais provides a splendid (and an incredibly cheap) start to a holiday in France, where the roads are so superb that the 30 mile distance from Paris is meaningless. But Beauvais is also a perfect starting point for a journey to Picardy and Flanders, where unvisited Irishmen lie in their thousands, once it was difficult and expensive to journey to those places; now is it cheap and easy - yet another reason to be glad to be alive in this era of free, enterprise, these days of Ryanair.