Ryanair grounds passengers
11th August 2008
Ryanair has shocked the travel industry by announcing that it’s cancelling thousands of flight bookings.
The Irish low-cost airline says any bookings made using third parties, including price comparison and ‘screenscraping’ websites, will be cancelled and refunded.
Screenscraper websites search a variety of airline websites and allow users to compare fares. They are so called because they ‘scrape’ websites, often without the website owners’ permission, for results.
Ryanair has had a very public battle with screenscraping sites including Bravofly, based in Ireland, which it has taken to court.
The airline is now emailing anyone who’s bought tickets through a third party to advise them that their ticket has been cancelled. It says it will only refund the ticket price, not any commission added by the third party.
Any passengers who aren’t successfully contacted will discover that they’ll be turned away at the check-in desk.
Ryanair says that it will only accept bookings made directly via its ryanair.com website.
The airline says screenscraping sites infringe its copyright and the terms and conditions of booking flights. It also claims the sites scraping ryanair.com are slowing the speed of their site.
Ryanair’s Howard Millar added: “We are determined to eliminate these illegal practices, particularly in cases where passengers are being misled by screenscrapers into paying higher fares, unjustified handling fees and hotel and car hire charges that are higher than they otherwise would be on Ryanair.com.”
It’s not clear which websites they believe are charging higher fares, as many screenscraping sites send customers through directly to the airline’s website to book.
A Ryanair spokesperson said the airline couldn’t provide Wanderlust with a list of the websites and travel agents whose customers would be affected by the new policy.
They advise any passengers who booked through a third party to contact the company they booked with to find out if their tickets will be cancelled.
Simon Evans, chief executive of the Air Transport Users Council, says Ryanair has other reasons for taking this action: “It really makes its money from other things it sells through its own website. Michael O'Leary has had a bee in his bonnet about third parties making money from his business.”
Ryanair offers hotel and car hire booking and a range of other additional services on its site.
A quick look around the internet this morning suggests that many screenscraping websites are unperturbed by Ryanair’s stance and are still offering their flights.
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