22nd December:

The on-line travel service TripAdvisor polled 4000 of its customers in Autumn of this year and Ryanair were voted the world’s ‘least liked airline’.

A spokesman from Ryanair hit back in typically bullish manner. "Ryanair carries more UK passengers than any other airline because it has both lowest fares and the best punctuality and its passengers ignore irrelevant and baseless surveys," the company said. "The public votes with its feet".

Yes, but since when did the public ever know what it was talking about? Popularity cannot always be taken as an indication of quality.

A poll of most Ryanair customers would, at best, highlight that the airline is OK when everything runs to plan. At worst, you’d get a grunt and maybe a “s’cheap, innit?” Questions such as “would you be prepared to pay a little more for allocated seating?” or “do you think the drinks and snacks we offer on-board represent good value for money?” are unlikely to be asked. Either way, I can’t imagine that anyone would eulogise and claim the company to be the best thing since sliced bread. Stale, sliced bread with a prawn mayonnaise filling for £4.99, presumably.

The people who fly Ryanair do so for one of only two reasons: they live near a small regional airport served by Ryanair (i.e. convenience) or they can’t afford to fly with a decent airline (i.e. economics). Both are perfectly understandable, but let’s not kid ourselves that the reasons are any more scientific than this. Punctuality and ticket price are the main drivers and to suggest that anything else matters is ludicrous.

The process of democratisation is generally a good thing, and I am in no way suggesting that foreign travel should be the privilege of the few rather than the choice of the many. However, the best way to judge a company is how they respond when things do not go according to plan, and Ryanair’s performance in this sphere can best be described as lamentable. In times of inconvenience they have historically treated their customers with something akin to contempt and it is for this reason, and this reason alone, that 4000 people voted as they did. The sad thing is that it’s unlikely to make a blind bit of difference.

Maybe it's about time the public really did start voting with their feet.