Ryanair has cancelled between 400 and 500 bookings every day this week as part of its crack down on customers using screen scraping sites to buy tickets.
Travolution understands that the no-frills airline instigated the wide-ranging and controversial policy as promised on Monday morning, despite claims to the contrary by officials earlier in the week. Around 2,500 tickets were terminated in the first five days.
It is unclear on which websites the cancelled tickets originated and on what routes passengers intended to make their journeys.
Customers affected by the crackdown are believed to have come from across the European Ryanair network, although there have been no reported incidences in the UK so far.
A spokeswoman for Ryanair told Travolution the airline had cancelled “a number” of bookings and would continue taking action against tickets “which have breached the terms and conditions”.
The spokeswoman continued: “We have informed the screen scraper of the cancellation via the email address provided at the time of booking and have refunded the credit card used at the time of booking.
“Ryanair urge intending passengers to book their flights directly at Ryanair.com to ensure the lowest fares and no fuel surcharge”.
Industry body ABTA made an official complaint about Ryanair’s actions to the UK’s Office of Fair Trading earlier this week.
Travelsupermarket and Skyscanner, two of the UK’s most well known meta search engines, issued statements on Tuesday this week in a bid to reassure users that tickets sourced originally on their sites would be valid.