Ryanair food costs more than price of flight

The cost of drink and food items bought during the journey can amount to more than the price of a single fare with the budget airline.

Six basic items from a Ryanair in-flight menu, such as a cup of tea, a sandwich, a tin of Pringles, a Kit Kat, a bottle of water and a glass of wine, cost £18.07 in total. The bill is higher than the £18 price of one-way flights currently being offered by the airline to Genoa, Warsaw and Paris.

The cost of similar items on other budget airlines come to slightly less, with a bill for £16.10 with Aer Lingus, and £14.75 with easyJet.

The research, by TravelSupermarket, found that some items could cost up to ten times as much as they would in supermarkets, with an 1,083 per cent mark up on still water on an Aer Lingus flight and a 1,036 per cent price increase on flapjacks on flybe.

The figures showed that hot drinks were the most extortionately priced – with drinks such as tea and coffee costing an average of 2,355 per cent more than they would in the supermarket. On a Ryanair flight, a 500ml bottle of still water, a cup of tea and a cup of coffee all cost £2.76 each. EasyJet charges £2.50 for tea and coffee but only £1.50 for the same size bottle of water.