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Yes
says Stephen McNamara, Ryanair's head of communications
Ryanair has transformed air travel over the past 20 years, opening it up to more people than ever before. Air travel is no longer the preserve of the rich; it can now be enjoyed by more people than ever before.
Our philosophy is simple - only pay for what you want. We have always provided passengers with choice: if you don't want to pay for food, don't buy it; if you don't want to pay checked-in baggage charges, don't bring bags to check in. Similarly, if you don't want to pay handling charges, use Visa Electron instead of your debit or credit card and there will be no charge.
Breaking down the cost of a fare to its most basic element - the cost of the seat - allows passengers to ensure that they only pay for what they use. Ryanair passengers are not asked to subsidise those who want to bring hold baggage or who enjoy tasteless airline food.
Booking a flight is simple, as the costs are transparent at all stages of the process. Passengers build their flight to suit their needs and the final cost reflects those choices. It is a method that has proven hugely popular with passengers, making Ryanair the world's largest scheduled airline. Passengers save billions each year by avoiding high fares.
We encourage passengers to travel with just hand luggage by providing a generous cabin baggage allowance of 10kg, entirely free of charge. If a passenger wants to check in luggage, we ask them to pay for it, as we don't believe that all passengers should share the cost of others' baggage.
On top of this, our average fare continues to fall and we are looking at other discretionary fees that could help to reduce our airfares even further. Our latest results show the average Ryanair fare, including a checked-in bag, was £31 (€34), which represented a 9% fall in our lowest fares, and we plan to reduce them even further to encourage more passengers to travel during the recession.
Our commitment to cutting fares has even led us to consider asking passengers to pay for using the toilet. While we have no current plans to introduce such a charge, it shows our commitment to ensuring that we keep our seat costs low by asking passengers to pay for optional services.
We recently asked passengers in an online poll to suggest a new discretionary revenue charge that would help to reduce Ryanair's costs and in the process bring its guaranteed lowest fares down even further.
We were a little surprised by how voting went in this not-altogether serious poll. We received around 100,000 votes and most of them called for a "fat tax" - an extra charge for overweight passengers.
Admittedly there are still some passengers who don't mind wasting their money on high-fares airlines which charge all their passengers for checked-in baggage and dire airline meals. Thankfully for us, more people are taking the alternative option, where the airfare is entirely up to each passenger and is guaranteed to be the lowest in Europe.
Travellers have embraced choice and low fares, which is why our passenger numbers have continued to grow, while the high-cost airlines have continued to lose passengers who are no longer willing to pay their high fares.
No
says Sandra Haurant, a fed-up frequent flyer
We all know budget airlines come with no frills, no food and no legroom. And that they often work out as the cheapest way to travel shorthaul, undercutting trains and even coach travel a lot of the time. They also have cornered the market in flights to certain destinations - for example, only Ryanair and Air France now fly direct from the UK to Nantes.
I have a special interest in flights to Nantes; it's the nearest airport to my husband's home town and we make the trip there about once a year to see his parents. For long visits we always drive, but for short trips flying is the most practical option.
On the face of it Ryanair's tickets from East Midlands airport to Nantes are nothing short of a bargain at £5 for a one-way flight. So how is it that, at the end of a long and frustrating online booking process, tickets for our family of four worked out at £220?
To break it down, the total fare is £30 - £10 each for the adults plus one child. Our youngest is under two so there is a £40 fee for her. She costs more than her brother who is nearly four and pays a full fare.
Now for the extras. Ryanair says passengers should only pay for what they want - and we want to take some clothes, a few presents and other belongings, which means taking bags. This adds £60. And heaven forbid we pack more than 15kg per bag. That will cost us an extra £15 per kilo.
We also want to check in. Online check-in is cheapest, and if you only carry hand luggage there is no charge. But as we are travelling with an infant this option isn't available, so airport - with our bags online - check-in adds £60. Surely this isn't an optional extra? All passengers have to check in if they want to board the flight.
With costs mounting, we decide not to pay for "priority boarding" at £6 each. This means if we want to be sure of finding seats together and making the journey with a toddler and a small child a little easier, we will have to get to the airport very early to get to the front of the queue. Very, very early. The flight leaves at 8.20am, so check-in opens at 6.20am. We opt out of travel insurance too, since we have our own policy. It would have added £10 each.
And finally, we don't exactly want to pay, but we are obliged to if we want these tickets. Just to pay for the ticket we have to fork out £30. If we had a Visa Electron card this would have been free. But we don't. So the total is £220.
Now a flight to France for a family of four at £220 is not expensive. Even after the hidden extras Ryanair's tickets were £160 cheaper than Air France's flight from London City.
But having been drawn into the site with tickets at £5 each way, it is difficult not to feel resentful when the bill is so much more.
Ryanair is not alone in keeping extra costs from customers until they reach the final stages of the booking process. easyJet tickets for one adult from Nice to Bordeaux with a starting price of £48.98 actually cost almost twice that once you factor in taxes at £24.99 and £8 each way for a hold bag weighing up to 20kg.
But with Air France you know what you are paying. Return flights for the same dates cost £119 each including tax, plus a £27 infant fee. No baggage fee, no check-in fee, and you get a snack and drinks on the flight.
What do you think?
Does Ryanair's policy of breaking down charges to keep prices low work for you? Or are budget airlines guilty of obscuring the true cost of flying with them?
Write to Cash, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, email cash@observer.co.uk or join the debate online at guardian.co.uk/money
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