You have to hand it to Ryanair, an airline that charges a £1 wheelchair levy, £4 for a sandwich, and £7 to check in a bag.

It will also charge £70 to turn on the computer and change a passenger’s name and it will only give back an estimated 20 per cent of scratchcard sales in prize money - the Gambling Commission is powerless to act as tickets are sold in international airspace.

More than a quarter of Ryanair’s income is now from “ancillary” sources, so it can afford to give away seats for next to nothing (it’s average fare is £28) - and still make money. And where the airline leads, others have followed - bmibaby says that scratchcards are its most popular sale after food and drink.

Now it is the turn of the tour operators to follow the low-cost model as package holiday sales finally start to dip. Last year, package sales fell for the first time, by one per cent, to 18.7 million, whereas the number of independent holidays continued to soar, by 3.4% to 26 million. Packages now only account for 45 per cent of holidays booked in the UK, compared with 60 per cent in 1994.

Established names like Laskarina and Tapestry Holidays folded as millions of packages went unsold and last month, the Big Four package operators became the Big Two, with Thomson/First Choice and Thomas Cook/Mytravel merging.

The old model is fading: it’s now the domain of the independent traveller, armed with dozens of price comparison websites and a saturated travel market. A recent report from Thomas Cook says that of 27m Britons with web access, 21m plan to research their main summer holiday online this year.

And so the Big Two are adapting, following Ryanair’s example and moving more towards internet-based operations, while trumpeting travel knowledge and financial protection as advantages.

They too have stripped down the package and converted transfers, adjacent seating and onboard food into profit centres. Scratch cards and baggage fees have already arrived and they have joined the chase to introduce mobile phone calls onboard.

None have yet followed Ryanair’s lead in charging a wheelchair levy (which first arose in 2004 when a disabled passenger sued the airline for charging him £18 to use a wheelchair. Ryanair reacted by introducing a 50p wheelchair levy on all passengers).

But analysts estimate that Ryanair takes 98p per passenger for the levy. With 50m passengers, that's an awful lot of wheelchairs or a handsome profit for the airline. Don’t count on others not following…

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