I flew with the rest of my family from Gatwick to Larnaca (Cyprus) and back in April 2006 with Thomas Cook Airlines. As we holiday in the northern part of the island and usually fly with the grossly overpriced Cyprus Turkish Airlines, this was the first time that we had chosen to fly to an airport in the south with a cheaper charter flight and then cross the border into the north, all in the name of saving quite a lot of money.

But before I launch into documenting the airline's (several) flaws, I will give credit where it is due and point out the things that it got right. Firstly, the customer is given the choice of whether to pay for an in-flight meal (at, I think, £5 per meal per journey), which is an excellent step forward in the aviation market as many people do not particularly wish to be forced to pay for a meal in the cost of their flight ticket that they don't really want to eat. As a family of five, we chose not to pay for the meal, which saved us £50, and - judging from how much food was left over by the passengers who had paid, we weren't really missing out on much. Secondly, fares are cheap; a flight from Gatwick to Larnaca with TCA was just under half the price of a comparable flight from Gatwick to Ercan via Turkey with CTA. Thirdly, some sort of in-flight entertainment was provided on both legs of the journey (I can't remember what the first film was, but the second film was 'Walk the Line', which I was quite impressed by as it was only in the cinemas earlier in the year.) Moreover, the cabin crew were friendly without being annoying.

First, the legroom (or, more accurately, the lack of it). I am 5' 10'', and even when sitting quite straight in my seat, my knees were pressing uncomfortably against the seat in front. I dread to think how uncomfortable it must have been for anyone over six foot. I know that budget airlines squeeze in as many seats as they can possibly fit in, but when you get on the plane and see for yourself just how literally TCA have implemented this practice, you will see what I mean. When you look at how tightly the seats are packed together, you will see that it looks plainly ridiculous. It is not even possible to stand up in front of your seat without leaning your whole body back to fit in with the contours of the seat in front of you. And if the person in front of you is particularly obnoxious and decides to recline their seat, so help you God... (why do they even make seats reclinable nowadays? is it actually possible to recline a seat without seriously inconveniencing another passenger - ie. the one behind? nobody likes getting a seat reclined into their face, but yet people are still prepared to recline their own...)

And finally, cleanliness. I assume it is because of how quickly the flights have to be turned round, but the planes were not properly clean on either leg of the journey. Flying can often be about the small things, and when you try and open your sickbag to find chewing gum from the previous five passengers, you begin to think that if they cannot even do that properly, what else must be wrong with the plane? On the return journey, we were seated at the back of the plane, but we could still smell the toilets that were in the centre of the plane. There was a strong smell of urine which, at one point, got so bad that even the cabin crew were remarking on it and went to get air freshener. I used the toilet at one point, and it is an experience I would rather forget.