Up in the air: why Ryanair doesn't totally suck

Ryanair.

The red-headed stepchild of the airline industry, Ryanair gets an awful lot of bad press. Some of it, of course, is deserved: just Google for ryanair passengers stranded. Much is also made of the fact that there are no seatback pockets, the seats don't recline (which I like, because I have knees), the cabin is a foul neon yellow colour and, apparently, they don't treat their cabin crew very well.

There's something to be said for them contributing to aviation pollution. Certainly, it's brought a wider number of people flying: at £14.99, this model plane is more expensive than some of the flights I've taken with them.

£14.99 before taxes and fees, of course — but then the other airlines are doing that as well.. But I think that the benefits of a more widely mobile Europe is worth the environmental issues. And I drive a smart, and I recycle, and I'm not convinced that aviation is the bête noire of the planet.

At the end of the day, if I want the winged equivalent of a bus ride, I'll pick Ryanair. Frankly, if I'm flying under four hours, I'll pick Ryanair if they go where I'm going and they're cheaper and I don' have luggage. I've flown with them from:

• Stansted to Venice Treviso, return
• Stansted to Riga, return
• Stansted to Gothenburg, then Stockholm Västerås
• Stansted to Karlsruhe-Baden, return
• Newquay to Alicante, return

I'd happily fly them again, assuming that I didn't need to bring with me any form of luggage, because Ryanair charges for the first bag. Like most US airlines do now, except that Ryanair also weighs your cabin baggage. So, when I went to Alicante with some friends this year, I was travelling light-for-the-beach, and I wore half of the clothes that I brought with me through Newquay International Airbarn and then peeled them off and stuffed them in my hand luggage when we took off. I think the only clothes actually in my luggage when I went through the airport were two t-shirts (I was wearing two), a pair of long lightweight trousers (I wore cargoes) and underwear (I only wore one pair).

I'll admit to a bit of a love for playing with their interactive routemap, too. I like thinking about how and where I'd start on an open-jaw lightweight dash around Europe. Newquay to Girona for Barcelona. Girona to Billund. Overland to Hamburg, then Hamburg to Milan. Overland to Turin, then Turin to Trapani. The carbon footprint is like a giant Doc Marten...but it's fun to play with the routemap.

For that matter, I quite like the little out-of-the-way airports that Ryanair uses. Give me Stansted or Luton over Heathrow (pre-Terminal 5) any day. Here in Cornwall, at least until our council had to close the airport because they hadn't sorted out an operating license, there were direct flights to Alicante and Girona-for-Barcelona as well as Stansted.

And really, compared to the competition these days? It's not so bad. The same year that I first flew Ryanair, I first flew Iberia. At least with Ryanair, you expect that you're going to have a budget travel experience. With Iberia, I was expecting a full-service airline and didn't get it. For me, a calm travel experience is one where I have the right expectations: and I know what to expect with Ryanair. Sure, I've been delayed for up to a couple of at Västerås and Newquay, but that's it — and it's nowhere near as bad as other experiences I've had with so-called full service airlines. Air Canada, I'm looking at you.

So there you have it. Anybody wants to buy me some Ryanair gift vouchers for Christmas, I'm all for it!