OAG Travel News

Portman Travel, Barrhead Travel and Fleetway Travel have been revealed among a list of some 300 companies which have received ‘cease and desist’ notices from no-frills airline Ryanair over the issue of screen-scraping. The travel technology firm Dolphin Dynamics, which supplies its FlightScanner tool to many travel management companies, and the flight comparison website Skyscanner.net are also included.

The names of the travel management companies are included in an appendix to evidence which Ryanair has today submitted to the European Commission (EC). The EC’s directorate general for energy and transport last week requested clarification of the airline’s announcement that it would cancel bookings made through third party websites relying on screen-scraping technology.

In it submission, the airline says: “The terms and conditions for using our website, as well as our terms and conditions of travel, clearly prohibit commercial reselling, and we have notified over 300 screenscrapers in writing (once they have been identified) of these terms and conditions, and have issued them with a legally binding cease and desist notice.”

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary concluded his letter to the EC saying: “We are pleased that the effective action taken by Ryanair in recent weeks has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the amount of unlawful screenscraper bookings made on Ryanair.com, and has given rise to a significant improvement in the access (and speed of response) for bona-fide consumers making bookings directly on the Ryanair.com website.”

Source: Business Travel World