Ryanair v Aer Lingus

First things first, I don't care who I fly with for short hop flights. It all boils down to price with me. For 2hrs I will slum it in with the cattle if it is free!

Today I booked a flight to London. Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus have flights leaving Dublin within an hour of each other and likewise with the return from London Gatwick. Either of the times suited me, so it did not matter at all.

Anyway, the basic cost of the flights were as follows:

Ryanair:
Ex Dublin - 10euro
Ex London - 20euro

Aer Lingus:
Ex Dublin - 1.99euro
Ex London - 6.99euro

Now then, any reasonable person would look at that and think that Aer Lingus is the cheapest by roughly 21euro.

Well if you though that, you would be wrong. The Ryanair flight, with all its taxes and fees, worked out at 54euro. The Aer Lingus flight, with all its taxes and fees, worked out at 67euro.

Somehow, somewhere along the line, Aer Lingus manage to get more expensive than Ryanair. The swing went from being -21euro at the start to +13euro at the end.. a swing of 34euro. How??? Seriously. Do Ryanair have a better deal with Dublin and Gatwick??? Do Ryanair pay different taxes to Aer Lingus???

Anyway, once again, I booked with Ryanair and am more than happy to fly them.