But when it comes to handling baggage, smaller budget airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet come out on top, said Jonathan French, spokesperson for the IAPA. "The irony of course is that the main culprit in losing baggage…happens to be British Airways," Mr French said.
"They are supposedly one of the full service airlines, whereas the easyJets and the Ryanairs of the world, they have a much simpler structure to their route…so there's far less opportunity for bags to go astray," he added.
The 24 members of the Association of European Airlines (AEA) reported that they had mishandled 15.7 bags for every thousand passengers carried. That works out at more than 5.6 million bags mishandled by those airlines last year alone.
Of these airlines British Airways was by far the worst offender, losing more bags than any other AEA carrier, according to the association's consumer repor.
Over the last five years, a total 25 million travellers have jetted off to enjoy luxury holidays in Spain with Ryanair, it has been announced.
According to the budget airline, it expects to transport an additional 11 million passengers on 174 routes from 18 airports in Spain - including flights to Alicante and flights to Murcia.
Ryanair first began carrying travellers to and from luxury holidays in Spain in 2002 with its flight between Frankfurt and Barcelona.
"A big thank you to the 25 million passengers who have made our Spanish flights such a success," commented Ryanair's chief executive officer Michael O'Leary.
He added that the budget airline now flies to every region in Spain.
Mr O'Leary also noted that 13 million passengers travelled through the Catalonian regions of Girona and Reus on budget Ryanair flights.
Ryanair was established in 1985 with a share capital of £1.
Halifax, the high street bank, has identified a rise in the number of cheap flights offered by budget airlines as a major factor behind a trend toward numerous, shorter holidays throughout the year.
A spokesperson for the bank added that with people taking more holidays to places like Spain each year, it was more sensible for holidaymakers to take out annual travel insurance rather than a number of policies for each trip.
"There is a trend towards more short breaks rather than one long summer holiday," said David Bruce, a spokesperson for Halifax Travel Insurance.
This was "partly due to cheap airlines making it a lot easier and more affordable for weekend breaks abroad," he explained.
He added: "More and more people are taking more than the traditional one summer holiday a year so it makes more sense to have annual cover." |
