A FREQUENT topic at the dinner party or in the pub in recent times has been low-cost air fare. "Guess how much I have paid to fly to...." has been the oft-repeated question. The answer (usually a pittance) is followed by the exclamation "How do they do it?"

For those not enthusiastic about flying it may have become a little tiresome, but for many of us low-cost airlines have been very welcome. In this region it has opened up all sorts of travel possibilities, with much of Europe now within easy reach for - well, almost nothing. Teesside, Newcastle and Leeds-Bradford all have low-cost airlines operating from them.

One of the first, of course, was Ryanair flying from Teesside to Dublin and this week we found out how the Irish airline has managed to make some of its routes profitable with such low fares.

The EU decision to fine the airline for its deal with Charleroi airport in Belgium seems a little unfair. All the low-cost airlines rely on eager airports to do deals over landing charges. From the airports' point of view - particularly those owned by local government - it makes a lot opf sense. Bringing lots of people to your part of the world cheaply, and thus with plenty of spending money, is a highly effective way to boost the local economy. Local hotels, bars and restaurants do very well from the extra business.

Indeed it is one of the benefits this area could look forward to, once the airlines get their marketing sorted out and stop promoting Teesside as the gateway to Newcastle or York. Perhaps that might be a benefit too of the impending name change.

Ryanair seems to have been singled out for for some Brussels bureaucratic rough stuff simply because it managed to do a better deal than anybody else. Jealousy - it's a terrible thing.