Google themselves say that the purchase is purely for information purposes, so that they can provide flight information on results pages, but this won’t reassure Kayak or Expedia who felt strongly enough about the deal to approach ITA asking them to call it off.

With a stranglehold on the search market and access to the latest flight information, Google could eventually provide a powerful online flight booking service which would be hugely threatening to the likes of Expedia and Kayak.

Various factors were taken into consideration when rating the various short-haul airlines, including the extra charges which are added to each booking. For example, Easyjet charges £3.50 for each booking, while Ryanair charges £5 per passenger for each leg of the journey, which can ratchet up the price considerably if you’re booking for a number of people.

Thomas Cook had most opprobrium heaped upon it, however, for its booking system which won’t tell you the full price of the fare until you’ve entered in full contact details. Most airlines in the study only required passenger names before the person making the reservation could find out the total cost.

Although said to be attempting to patch things up with his wife, there’s clearly a lot to be done and he has gone on holiday without her. The pair haven’t been seen together since last month.

Going by the probably fictional accounts in the newspapers, Duffy and his missus invited Yvonne, but she didn’t want to go. The decision may just have something to do with the whole separation thing. Ronan’s probably not her favourite person at the minute and holidays are supposed to be relaxing and fun.

Other countries which also fared well, were South Africa and Greece, although it was not mentioned whether the World Cup might have a significant impact on costs in Cape Town, Durban and the like.

At the other end of Africa, Egypt and Morocco were also found to be affordable destinations, although when flights were also taken into account, the results had a more euro-centric look about them, with Poland and Portugal featuring.

A Skyscanner study compared the prices of various things, including coffee, beer and a meal and found that France was more expensive than many countries that we tend to think of as being more costly, such as those in Scandinavia. However, while beer is particularly expensive in cafes in France, wine from supermarkets is astonishingly cheap, particularly by British standards. Discrepancies such as this were not taken into account in calculations.

Similarly, while French ski resorts can be extortionately expensive, other areas of the country are far more reasonable – even areas on the Cote d’Azur, an area widely considered to be the place for millionaires and celebrities.

The budget airline’s profit forecast has therefore been revised to somewhere between £100m and £150m from the £175m to £200m which was previously expected.

The last six months, the airline’s quietest period, saw a loss of £78.7m, which represents a substantial improvement on the £129.8m loss in the same period during the previous year.

EasyJet is expected to show considerable growth this year, despite these various setbacks and against the backdrop of the current weak economy.

TUI’s chief executive, Peter Long, said that the group, along with other travel agents, would be looking to be compensated for their losses by national governments. He believes that a government overreaction to the eruption led to the losses and therefore the governments are responsible.

Long says that it is unlikely TUI will receive the full amount, but thinks there is a chance they could receive somewhere in the region of £60 million.

Qantas flights to the UK will be unaffected by the strike, but there are a number of codesharing flights between the two airlines which could be hit. Qantas also said that if other partners of theirs were needed, they could also assist the British airline. Cathay Pacific and Air France are also part of the Qantas alliance.

With cabin crew strikes following the major disruption caused by the ash cloud, BA will doubtless welcome any assistance they can get.

BA is in a dire position at the moment, having been hugely affected by the ash cloud – not just in terms of having large numbers of flights grounded for an extended period, but also in having to pay expenses for travellers trapped abroad during this period.

The union has rejected the latest offer from BA and has opted to strike between the 5th and 9th of June. This will see major disruption for anyone travelling to Cape Town or Johannesburg for World Cup matches as this is the start of the tournament.

BA believe that their offer was very fair, but travel perks and disciplinary action against a number of staff are believed to be the parts Unite have objected to.