The battery of invective directed at the government over the high rate in taxes that air passengers pay has continued today with a statement from leading British airlines. Our tax is the 139th highest in the world.

A better question could be whether we should be loyal to travel companies. After all, in the immortal words of Monty Python, what have they ever done for us?

On the same day that Stonewall announced its Bigot of the Year award, we have Ryanair trying hard to win an award for “landing right in it up to our necks” award.

CD-Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world. This month, those wanting to escape the Olympics should seek out Spain – just forget flying there with Ryanair

The profits announced by Ryanair this morning clearly show that the airline’s policy of charging for every single thing they can think off is paying dividends. Or at least dividends to their shareholders!

Estonia has shed its reputation as a venue for stag parties and become an European mini-break destination par excellence. Anthony Lydekker takes a trip to Tartu – the country’s second largest city

Ryanair – the airline that everyone loves to hate – has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Agency over its latest newspaper campaign.

Catherine Henderson learns how to make some Morrocan morsels in North Africa’s souk city

Expect to pay more from next Tuesday when you book a Ryanair flight. There is a new levy/surcharge/fee to cover what it calls “the EU’s new eco-looney ETS tax.”

Last week we told you how airlines et al had been ticked off for the silly surcharges that they imposed on people paying by credit card.

No, not on clothes or beds or sofas. I’m talking about the holiday sales. At the moment airlines, hotels, travel agents and tour operators have them in abundance. But will they make us book?

By the end of next year the government intends banning excessive/hidden fees charged by airlines (indeed by any company) where payment is made by credit or debit cards. On the face of it this is good news. Look deeper and it might be so great.
Why my scepticism?

Passengers planning to fly with budget airline Ryanair in summer 2012 will need to travel light. Michael O’Leary’s no frills airline has revealed that it will be increasing its online baggage fees by 25 percent

CD-Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world. This month, we’ll be booking the bus to Scotland while crossing our fingers that the situation improves quickly in Cairo

So Pan Am – BBC 2’s new American airline drama that has been billed as ‘Mad Men with wings’ – is back on the box tonight.

I thought I was dreaming a minute ago. On BBC’s Breakfast, Michael O’Leary from Ryanair and Willie Walsh of the holding company that owns British Airways and Iberia were standing side-by-side having a go at the government about APD.

The low budget airline that everyone loves to loathe is to get rid of a number of loos in each and every one of their aircrafts. Going forward, Ryanair planes will have only one loo on board, in a bid to make room for six extra seats.

CD-Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world. This month, it’s good news for Glasgow and Gothenburg and gourmands in London, but we’ve lost trust in TripAdvisor…

Meeting in London this week were representatives from low cost airlines across the world. They converged for the 8th Annual World Low Cost Airlines Congress. Low cost airlines like Ryanair, easyJet, Air Berlin, Norwegian, Wizz, Germanwings have enabled fares to drop and, more importantly, allowed holidaymakers to travel to places they wouldn’t have considered.

Is Ryanair the most repulsive airline around? Not content with charging passengers to check in bags, in addition to asking them to cough up for food and drink plus pay to use onboad toilets, Michael O’Leary’s airline has this week launched its own prepay card.

No-frills airlines have opened up opportunities for us to visit countries we might not have otherwise thought about. Take Estonia for example. Before the no-frills airlines went there, not that many people travelled from Ireland or the UK to the country. Now they have just announced that there has been a 90% increase in visitors going there.

Air Passenger Duty was introduced in 1994. On every airline ticket purchased it is payable and it is the duty of the airline to pass this tax onto the government when the passenger flies. But what happens if the passenger doesn’t fly?

A couple of days ago, Ryanair announced their profit for the first three months of the year. The bit of their announcement that I thought was interesting was the fact that they thought that their fares would rise by 12%. Am I being perverse in sensing that this may be good news?

Are the costs the same between airlines? CD-Traveller picks one route to Tenerife to find out.

My apologies. This story is two-weeks old but I missed it. Mea culpa. A reader spotted a press release on the Ryanair website and it really is just too good not to share with you.

Sometimes you might be forgiven for thinking that the basic price of an airline ticket is peanuts. The add-ons are those little bits here and there that suddenly glare out at you on the final page and cause you to take a deep breath and say, “but the fare was only a tenner!” when I started. Now one of the biggest airline ticketing systems providers, Amadeus, has completed some research which shows that last year these add-ons were worth €15.11 billion.

Despite the volcanic ash problems, the winter weather that caused closure at some airports and the economic downturn, Ryanair still managed to increase profits by 26% to £348 million.
How?

t seemed quite simple when I got up this morning. Flights into Scottish airports would be disrupted due to the ash cloud emanating from the Icelandic volcano we can pronounce, Grimsvotn, and spread southwards.
Except that isn’t what’s happening. Some airlines are flying and some have been advised (“ordered” seems to be the real meaning of the word for Ryanair by the Irish Aviation Authority) not to.