Why Punish Passengers?

The decision to cancel so-called third party tickets is a typically impulsive move by Michael O’Leary.

The Ryanair boss has announced that the airline is annulling all bookings made through websites like lastminute.com and Opodo.

The stance will affect thousands of passengers travelling after this Monday and the move seems to be deliberately aimed to cause maximum inconvenience all round.

Mr O’Leary says he will issue refunds to the third party websites, who will have to pass the money on to the passengers.

By doing this, he hopes to penalise the websites with a vast administrative burden.

The reason for O’Leary’s decision would indeed appear to be chiefly to protect Ryanair’s lucrative secondary trade in hotel rooms, car rental and other ancillary services.

The real victims will of course – as always – be the ordinary passenger caught in the middle of this unseemly spat.

They will have booked train tickets, airport transfers, guided tours and a whole range of other services on the strength of their Ryanair booking.

They will now have to cancel trips and risk losing money or pay much higher fares to continue with their journey.

Ryanair passengers will be better served if Mr O’Leary moderates his current hardline stance.

(c) 2008 Belfast Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.