Travel website criticises Ryanair decision on third-party bookings

TRAVEL website ebookers.ie has hit back at Ryanair’s decision to cancel flights booked by third parties while Spain is demanding information on the matter.

Last week Ryanair said it would cancel all flights made through third-party “screen-scraping”. The company will only allow flights to be purchased through their website.

But ebookers.ie said the move is because Ryanair wants to become a “one-stop-shop” for all travel products.

In addition to flights, Ryanair offers customers the option to book hotels, car hire and travel insurance on its website.

Marketing manager with ebookers.ie, Steven Rice said: “Ryanair’s decision to stop online travel agents screen-scraping their site is entirely their prerogative and while it is not untrue to say that flights are usually more expensive from an online travel agent that has screen-scraped Ryanair fares, ebookers.ie thinks the main reason they are making such a big deal about this is because they want to become a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all travel products.

“By forcing customers to go directly to their site to get fares... Ryanair are in a prime position to sell all their other products, which they aggressively do so on their site.”

Mr Rice admitted that a customer could save “a few euro” on air fare by booking directly with Ryanair but said they would end up spending “a lot more if they also buy other travel products from Ryanair”.

Meanwhile, the Spanish public works ministry is waiting for an answer from Ryanair about its plans to cancel tickets booked through Spain’s leading online bookers — eDreams, Rumbo and Atrapolo — before deciding whether to take further action, a spokeswoman said.

“After the media reports at the weekend, on Monday we acted,” said a ministry spokeswoman.

However, she said the ministry would not necessarily take action against Ryanair as a result.