Just when your blood had stopped boiling about this week's new year hike in transport fares, a cheeky press release from The Flight Centre arrives to set the pulse racing again.

Since a single Tube ticket in Zone 1 now costs a whopping £4 and the distance involved can be as little as a mile, the travel agency has calculated that a first-class flight to Sydney can be up to 30 times cheaper per mile than an overcrowded Tube journey in the capital.

Estimating that a London-Sydney flight is 10,555 miles long (return journey 21,110 miles) they say a current Emirates fare of £2,769 costs just 13pm per mile, 30 times cheaper than the Tube.