One of the most stressful aspects of budget flights is that, generally, you are not automatically assigned a seat number. If you don't want to be amongst the crowd scrambling for seats you either have to pay extra to pre-book a seat or pay for 'speedy boarding' where you are supposed to be guaranteed to be among the first to board the plane - useful if you are travelling as a family or a group and want to be seated together. In practice, this sometimes doesn't work, as when passengers are 'bussed' to the plane and you then have to take your chances along with everyone else.

Personally, I normally travel solo and prefer to wait until the majority have gone through the boarding gate - some of whom have been standing in a queue for a considerable time - I then join the end of the queue and then board the aircraft by the rear steps if possible, working my way towards the front to spot an empty seat. I prefer to sit on the aisle seat and I have no qualms about asking anyone who's hogging all three seats to themselves to either let me pass or to move over - they generally will do the latter and, with luck, the middle seat will remain empty for the duration of the flight - somewhere to deposit book, glasses etc. this is especially useful if travelling with Ryanair as they have decided to dispense with back seat pockets meaning you have to juggle everything on your lap!

I follow a similar procedure when the plane lands. I have never understood the practice of everyone standing as soon as the seatbelt sign goes out scrambling for bags and coats - there's nowhere to go! I just sit and relax and wait for most people to leave the plane and then leisurely follow. I recently did this at East Midlands airport, a bus was waiting at the bottom of the steps, I was last on board and 'hey presto' first off and through passport control!