Low-cost air travel is neither cheap nor fun anymore

RYANAIR’S Michael O’Leary constantly rants on about how the Government’s new €10 airline travel tax is doing tremendous damage to Ireland’s tourism industry, citing its introduction for justifying route closures, reducing schedules and causing job losses.

But why does no one ever challenge Mr O’Leary over the ridiculous €5 per passenger per journey credit card fee his airline forces on passengers, or his airline’s intention later this year to reintroduce fees for online check-in?

The consumer, I’m afraid, is being left high and dry and one can only predict that all these charges are going to go up and up. Surely, if there is to be a credit card charge, then there should only be one per transaction, and not per individual passenger.

And making passengers pay for online check-in when there is no alternative is again another money-gouging mechanism that will madden passengers. For a return trip I booked for two recently, I paid €20 in credit card fees — quite simply, ridiculous! And if I’m going to have to pay again to check in, where will it end?

One has to admire Mr O’Leary. However, if his arguments are to be convincing he should lead by example and drop Ryanair’s exorbitant credit card fees and future online check-in fees before lambasting the Government and the rest of us about the catastrophic results of the travel tax.

As for the answer that we should all book with Visa Electron, we would were it not for the fact that most of the major banks in Europe don’t offer it.

Low-cost travel used to be fun and cheap. It’s neither now.

Niall Doheny

Avenue Franklin Roosevelt

Brussels

Belgium