We can’t have been the only people to roll their eyes at Michael O’Leary’s announcement that Ryanair was going to sort out its website and customer service.

The airline has a history of publicity-grabbing releases that turn out to mean nothing. Standing flights, anyone? (Hell, that one was so good it was announced at least twice.)

Well prepare to be surprised, because the airline’s Kafkaesque website has had an overhaul – and it is dramatically for the better. This is obvious when you hit the homepage: the colours have been toned down and the site cleaned up so you don’t feel like you’re having a MySpace migraine.

Looking for flight information? You no longer have to type in a tricky Captcha to prove you’re not a robot. And best of all, all the optional extras have been cleaned down to one simple page – and they aren’t automatically added on.

There are still a couple of issues that are likely to cause gripes. The insurance dropdown form still requires selected ‘Don’t Insure Me’, so many people are still likely to select their home country and end up with insurance on their bill. (In the site’s defence, it now states you can select the no insurance option – a big improvement on before.)

And credit cards will still cost customers a few quid more – but as it costs the airline more to process them, who can blame them?

It might not be the slickest website in the business, but it no longer feels like something that is working against you.

Now we just need those onboard arrival trumpets to stop and we should be getting somewhere…