Ryanair flights pulled from booking sites in ‘pirate’ row

RYANAIR has been hit by the sudden removal of flights from online booking websites as the low-cost carrier warned of the impact on passenger numbers.

It marks an escalation in the row between Ryanair and online travel agents as the airline said platforms such as Booking.com, Kiwi and Kayak pulled its flights without warning.

In an update to investors yesterday, the Irish carrier said the move would reduce short-term passenger numbers by up to 2pc in January.

Ticket revenues may also be affected as Ryanair said it would respond by lowering fares for passengers booking directly through its own website.

Its shares fell 4.5pc yesterday, despite bosses insisting the change would not “materially affect” its full-year traffic or profit guidance.

Ryanair has been in a long-running battle with what it calls “pirate” travel agency websites, as it has accused platforms of overcharging and providing fake contact information.

The airline launched legal action in the US against Booking.com owner Booking Holdings and its subsidiaries including Kayak, Agoda and Priceline.

Booking.com has rejected Ryanair’s claims and has previously accused boss Michael O’leary of making “false and misleading” statements about its business.

Ryanair said it was not clear what the reason was behind its removal from the sites, but said it could be down to a recent Irish High Court that ruled screen scraper Flightbox could not “unlawfully” scrape Ryanair’s online content for bookings sites.

Ryanair said: “Ryanair will respond to this welcome removal of our flights from OTA (online travel agent) pirate websites, by lowering fares where necessary to encourage all passengers to book directly on Ryanair.com where they are guaranteed to always get the lowest air fares without OTA Pirate overcharges, fake contact info, or other pricing/refund scams.

“In the meantime, Ryanair continues to make its fares available to honest/ transparent OTA’S such as Google Flights, who do not add hidden markups to Ryanair prices and who direct passengers to make their bookings directly on the Ryanair.com website.”

Yesterday’s update also revealed that Ryanair carried 12.5m passengers last month, an increase of 9pc on the previous year.

It cancelled a further 900 flights during the month as the Israel-hamas conflict rages on.

Booking.com and Kiwi were approached for comment.