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Ryanair stops “screen-scraping” bookings

August 13, 2008 | Online Travel

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.

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.”

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.

Get the full story at the Irish Examiner

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