Change your flight online with Ryanair

Ryanair is to let passengers change their flight or sell tickets to a friend online.

If you're not going to make a plane, you can change the flight or the name of the passenger (sell/give it to a friend) for £15/€22 up to 12 hours before the departure. In more sudden cases of emergency inability to fly, passengers can phone the Ryanair call centre and do the same thing for £20/€30 up to three hours before takeoff.

Paul Fitzsimmons, Ryanair spokesman, explained: "You've always been able to do this through a call centre, we've just extended it online. It's to make sure that you don't lose your money if you can't fly. Tickets are non-refundable.

"With 8-9 per cent of passengers no shows, we can't say how many people already use this facility."

However, competitor Easyjet has beaten the Irish to the punch and is cheaper. Changing name and flight on its website costs £10/€14, while through the call centre it's £15/€21. And you can do it until two hours before a flight.

Both airlines offer refunds under proven cases of cataclysmic circumstances.