I read an interesting article last week about Ryanair and the shameless way they charge UK travellers more than passengers booking and flying out of Eurozone countries.

It’s clear to see the €1 = £1 exchange rate when converting additional charges into sterling. This unfair situation was highlighted last week when the airline announced that it is cutting a couple of its standard charges.

The airport check-in fee has been reduced from €70 to €45, and its missed departure fee has been cut from €110 to €100. The new fees convert to £33.54 and £74.53 respectively. But for anyone flying from a British airport, the new fees will be much higher, at £45 and £100. The cost of fares ex-UK is much higher than those ex-Eurozone countries due to the penal exchange rate.

Is there any way around this for travellers? You could save by booking your flights as single journeys in separate transactions. That way, the leg back to the UK would be priced in euros. But you can’t get around paying in sterling for the outbound sector, and the process would be time-consuming too.

Ryanair say they do not discriminate against UK travellers and that fees are charged in the currency of the departure airport regardless of the nationality of their customers. But, they say that because of the exchange rate they apply, travellers based in Britain are in effect being charged more for the same flights than those based elsewhere. It seems that Ryanair sets a much more penal exchange rate against sterling than it does against any other currency, which makes its flights significantly more expensive for travellers from the UK.