The surge seems to have caught Ryanair, surely Britons’ least-favourite budget airline, unaware. On August 1st only 11 check-in desks were open at Stansted airport to handle 255 flights. As a result more than 700 passengers missed their planes. In the confusion armed police had to protect the staff of Ryanair (or “Riot-air”, as one passenger put it) and others from irate travellers.

Ryanair reported a 13% increase in passengers in June compared with a fall of 4.9% for classier BA, though customers complain that Ryanair treats them like “cattle”. In a desperate race to the bottom, BA is now proposing to cut both prices and “frills” such as lunch on its short-haul flights, while Ryanair, digging deep, threatens to charge passengers for using the lavatory once they are on board.

I hope that they go out of business, and that any money that their decision-/policy-makers have made is lost.