Michael O'Leary warned in June that Ryanair would break even this year only with the benefit of rising airfares, such is the crippling impact of high fuel prices. In spite of the mountain of evidence that the consumer is buckling, it needed Mr O'Leary to spell out yesterday that fares would not be rising after all for the penny to drop in the City that 2008 could be a lossmaking year for the Irish airline. As a result, the share price suffered the stock market equivalent of rapid descent.

Mr O'Leary is not one to take a crisis lying down and he is taking the battle to the competition by undercutting aggressively. If this is to be a low-fares environment, bring it on, is his attitude.