Low-cost airlines compared

	Ryanair	EasyJet
Web site experience	Anonymous access with short timeout, requires continuously entering data. Searches require acceptance of terms and conditions	Saved profile with past searches, personal and payment info stored
General information. Families with children	All concentrated in a single page with all relevant and irrelevant info for everybody	Information page (clearly organized in FAQ form) specifically sent to highlight benefits for families
Boarding pass	Reminder email. Lengthy filling of ID and birth data with redundant information and short timeout (often need to restart form filling)	Email with forward to downloadable pre-compiled PDF page
Hand luggage size allowance [cm]	55x40x20=44 cm3	56x45x25=63 cm3
Hand luggage weigth allowance [kg]	10	Unlimited
Infants hand luggage allowance	None	Standard
Infant on lap cost	€30	€20
Safety inspection	All luggage individually checked for size. All ID have been individually checked for errors on boarding passes (this explains the lengthy procedure for filling and printing). It seems that airport staff is required to charge a given amount of penalties per flight, based on travelers' mistakes. Being searched and inspected is a tediously long and very unpleasant	Standard
Aircraft interiors	Budget furniture. Less leg space	Standard (not low-cost) airline environment
Priority boarding cost	€5	€4
Priority boarding for families	None	After priority boarding, (family) groups with one 5-year or less
Seating	No assigned seat	Automatically assigned seat. In my experience, large family group kept together
Flight	Selling on board of no-smoke cigarettes, airport transfer tickets and lotto
Distance airport to/from Paris	BVA 75 min / 86 km Beauvais is a small airport, with few shops and connections	ORY 30 min / 23 km Orly is a large airport with many shops and connections
Transfer cost to/from Paris and Disneyland	Coach to/from Paris €15 Children pay from 3 IF YOU MISS YOUR COACH (1 per flight), TAXI IS €100 Taxi to/from Disney €150 Coach €24	RER (metro) €4 Children pay from 9 RER runs every 10 minutes Taxi to/from Disney €84 Coach €15
Transfer in Pisa to/from Florence	Unreliable, expensive and polluting coach service offered on board the aircraft	Comfortable direct national public railway connection from Pisa airport to the very center of Florence at €5.80, which takes 1 hour and runs almost every hour

Specific information based on flights for a family group with 1, 3 and 5 year old

• EasyJet PSA BVA # EZ 4208 of January 22, 2013 and
• Ryanair BVA PSA # FR 9977 of January 25, 2013

The woman supervisor at gate refused priority bording to the family, saying that the flight was not full and there was plenty space to arrange for the family group to stay together. This was not true and the family group was split, with small children in rows with unknown persons. The cabin attendant said that she was not even informed about the group, and she could have saved the necessary seating space to keep the family united. She did not try to move anybody anyway