The pigeons, the stone lions, Nelson and even the empty plinth might all be put in the shade if a race between Michael O’Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair and Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet ever takes place.
A couple of weeks ago, Ryanair ran an advertisement with Stelios having a nose like Pinocchio, the allegation being that easyJet was hiding the truth about the punctuality of the airline. As well as that, Ryanair in the shape of Michael Cawley, the Chief Operating Officer was interviewed on BBC Breakfast and alleged that easyJet was a high fare airline.

With the climate change conference going on in Copenhagen and the release of the report on air transport by the Committee on Climate Change, the awards by Consumers International (CI) have been overshadowed. One of the awards has been won by EasyJet. But this isn’t any old award voted by travel trade friends. And it isn’t much of an accolade. This award is to highlight corporate irresponsible behaviour.

Last night the winners were announced of the British Travel Awards. CD-Traveller is one of the sponsors because these are the only awards where you, the traveller and holidaymaker, can vote. So it’s not just the travel industry patting itself on the back. And over 100,000 of you voted so our thanks, and those of the organisers, for taking the time to vote.

Both Ryanair and easyjet have complained about the landing fees being charged by certain airports. According to easyjet, Luton Airport’s fees have risen by over 25% over the last few years and that it is why it has cut the number of flights operating from there. The same applies to the cutbacks by Ryanair at Manchester, Dublin and Stansted airports.

All are aware that airlines, particularly no-frills airlines are trying everything to charge passengers more and more money on top of their ticket prices. That way, on the surface, they still appear cheap.But rules are rules. Or are they? There is a hand baggage weight limit on Ryanair but I have yet to see it [...]