Cancelled flight fears; AIR TRAVEL: Ryanair crackdown on web bookings.Byline: By Edward Stephens TRAVEL CORRESPONDENT HUNDREDS of Ryanair passengers travelling from Birmingham could find their flights cancelled as the airline clamps down on bookings made through third party websites. Up to 1,000 passengers per day nationally are thought to have booked through these websites and are expected to lose their seats as the airline battles to retain direct bookings. Ryanair will carry 1.5 million passengers on 22 routes from Birmingham International Airport Birmingham International Airport may refer to:
Bridget Dowling Bridget Elizabeth Dowling Hitler (alternative Brigid) (1891 – 1969) was Adolf Hitler's sister-in-law via her marriage to Alois Hitler, Jr. She was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. , Ryanair's sales and marketing manager for the UK and Ireland, said messages would be sent to the e-mail addresses See Internet address. e-mail address - electronic mail address on the bookings informing people that their flights had been cancelled but these could go to the third party website rather than the passenger if that was the only address the airline had. She said these websites were acting as middlemen and this was affecting the operation of Ryanair's website. "It is causing our system to slow down and this is affecting our passengers so we have no alternative but to take this action," she said. People would be able to get refunds but again they would have to take up that matter through whoever they booked with. Sean Tipton, of the Association of British Travel Agents The Association of British Travel Agents, commonly abbreviated to ABTA, is a trade organization of British travel agents, founded in 1950. As of May 2005, it has 6310 Travel Agent members, and 1052 Tour Operator members; 85% of package holidays in the United Kingdom , said: "This move by Ryanair can only penalise Verb 1. penalise - impose a penalty on; inflict punishment on; "The students were penalized for showing up late for class"; "we had to punish the dog for soiling the floor again" penalize, punish their own customers and damage their reputation as an airline and we would hope that they would seriously reconsider re·con·sid·er v. re·con·sid·ered, re·con·sid·er·ing, re·con·sid·ers v.tr. 1. To consider again, especially with intent to alter or modify a previous decision. 2. what they are doing." And Rochelle Turner of Which?Holiday said: "We are stunned stun tr.v. stunned, stun·ning, stuns 1. To daze or render senseless, by or as if by a blow. 2. To overwhelm or daze with a loud noise. 3. that Ryanair is treating its customers in this way. "At a time when many people are struggling to afford holidays overseas airlines should be finding ways to make it easier for families to book and travel, not making it even harder." But the airline's deputy chief executive Howard Millar Howard Millar is deputy CEO and the CFO for Irish low-cost airline Ryanair. said: "Ryanair is pursuing legal actions in a number of European countries to bring an end to this unlawful and anti-consumer activity." He said customers were paying handling charges, higher fares and getting inaccurate information from third party websites. "Ryanair will introduce new procedures to cancel all passenger bookings made through screenscraping websites. "We truly believe this is a quicker and more effective way of discouraging this unlawful activity," he added. |
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