Truly, the company has come a long way since its shaky jets saved Stanstead Airport from being no more than a glorified airfield in the early 1990s.

Of course, the cost won't really be Euro10. It will be Euro10 plus whatever charges have been added on. In fact, by 2011 a Euro10 flight to the United States could cost well over Euro100, such is the current inflation in aviation charges. Government is responsible for many of these extra taxes but increasingly airlines are getting in on the act too. Ryanair was the pioneer of such charges but, as shown by its announcement in Easter week that it would charge up to Euro15 to book a seat, Aer Lingus has long left it behind in that department.

Nobody minds a company putting a bit of a 'spin' on a price rise, or some other lessthan-welcome announcement it has to make, but for Aer Lingus to say that this charge is due to "passenger demand" is pushing public relations to the point of inviting a backlash.

Cheap travel, whether you credit it to EU competition law or, as Michael O'Leary would have it, to Michael O'Leary, is a fundamental part of our economic wellbeing.

It has boosted our tourism industry - the entire Temple Bar stag-night phenomenon is built on the back of it. It has also allowed easy access for the many Polish, Lithuanian and Romanian immigrants who now work here but who want to fly home regularly.

Huge swathes of our economy from construction to hospitality and the health service rely on the ability of overseas workers to travel to and from this country quickly and cheaply.

All these travellers are entitled to the basic consumer protection of knowing exactly how much they will have to pay for a flight when, enticed by an ad for cheap fares, they go to book it.

Minister for Enterprise and Employment Micheal Martin has said new regulations are on the way requiring a business to display the 'inclusive' price of a product or service in its advertisements. Since the start of the year, the Advertising Standards Authority has been monitoring travel advertisements and has warned the industry of its responsibilities to be clear in the prices they quote on ads.

The Code of Advertising Standards requires that an advertisement should not "mislead by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise and should not exploit the credulity, inexperience or lack of knowledge of consumers". Ads should also include VAT and other taxes, duties or inescapable costs.

Why the code is not stringently enforced already is a mystery to most travellers who, lured in by these ads, do battle every time they try to book a flight. Between baggage charges, seat selection, airport charges, taxes, credit-card fees and travel insurance that passengers find difficult to opt out of, many people are wondering if there really is such a thing as a cheap flight anymore.

Maybe it's time we concentrated the minds of the airlines and introduced, in the manner of "headline fares" some massive "headline fines" for misleading advertising. Cheap flights democratised flying but that doesn't mean to say that the millions who now fly should be treated with so little respect. Valid consumer interests should take priority over the only-for-profit interests of the airline industry.