3rd March:

A short weekend away in the South of France has again confirmed my earnestly-held belief that someone could make a fortune by establishing an airline that operates from Stansted airport and flies to major European destinations but which offers allocated seating, comfortable gate areas and, most importantly, transparent pricing. It's no secret that I detest Ryanair, but there are some routes that render travelling with them practically unavoidable. Which annoys me even more.

Take your ticket price and add on the taxes. Then add on the cost of checking in at the airport (no longer free because they'd prefer you to do it over the web), the cost of your hold baggage, your priority boarding pass, then add a supplement for paying by credit card and voila! Your 50 pence ticket is costing you 80 quid. I'm almost waiting for the day when they change the pre-flight safety demonstration to something along the lines of "In case of depressurisation, an oxygen mask will appear from the panel above your head. Pull the mask sharply downwards and place it over your nose and mouth. Remove your credit card and swipe along the card reader, as shown, and breath normally". Except they'll probably charge you a supplement for using Visa rather than Maestro.

In case of depression, please get off and take your business elsewhere.