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Ryanair launches summer schedule, piracy survey

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Budget airline Ryanair has launched its highly anticipated summer 2024 schedule with over 1.5 million seats for Cypriot holidaymakers looking to get away with friends and family this summer and recharge with well-deserved rest and relaxation.

Operating from the end of March, Ryanair’s summer 2024 schedule offers a choice of popular sunny hotspots and city breaks, as well as less well-known destinations to unearth and explore at low fares.

To celebrate the launch of its summer 2024 schedule and over 1.5 million seats for its Albanian customers, Ryanair has launched a limited-time seat sale with fares available from just €35.99 for travel until the end of Oct 2024.

Ryanair’s Head of Communications for Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Romania said:

“Ryanair is pleased to announce our summer 2024 schedule with over 1.5 million seats available for our Cypriot customers across a host of amazing destinations.

“So, if you’re looking to getaway this summer, you won’t be disappointed with the unbeatable selection of destinations we have on offer at the lowest fares in Europe.

“With fares starting from just €35.99, customers should visit ryanair.com now and book early to make sure they secure the best possible price – future you will thank you for it.”

Pirate survey

Ryanair released its November survey of online travel agents (OTA) pirate scams and overcharges, which shows that OTA’s such as Kiwi.com, Lastminute.com, Opodo.com and eDreams.com continue to scam unsuspecting consumers with “unjustified” fees for their non-existent-services.

“Ryanair continues to campaign for consumers to be protected from these overcharging and mis-selling OTA pirates,” said the airline.

OTA PIRATE OVERCHARGES – NOV 2023
OTP PRODUCT OTP PRICE RYANAIR PRICE OVERCHARGE
Allocated Seats €24.40 €5.50 +344%
Allocated Seats €19.99 €5.50 +263%
Flight Change Fee €105 €45 +133%
10kg Bag €39.64 €18.39 +116%
OTP INVENTED CHARGES – NOV 2023
“Processing” Fee €30 €0
“Cancellation” Fee €60 €0

Ryanair said it continues to survey and highlight the consumer scams being perpetrated by these “OTA pirates, who masquerade as price comparison websites”.

The most egregious examples of an invented fee in the November survey were Opodo.com charging customers €60 for a flight “cancellation fee” when justified cancellations on Ryanair attract zero fees.

Lastminute.com duping its customers for a €23 allocated seat, which costs just €5.50 on Ryanair.com, eDreams.com levying a flight change fee of up to €60 on top of the Ryanair change fee, but the most egregious overcharge of all is Kiwi.com charging €24.40 for an allocated seat which cost just €5.50 on the Ryanir.com website, an overcharge of 344%.

Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, said: “Our Nov survey continues to expose the scams and overcharging of these OTA pirates.

“Not alone are they unlawfully scraping Ryanair’s website in an act of digital piracy, but these pirates then use this unlawfully gained info to scam unsuspecting consumers with charges for services that are provided by Ryanair free of cost, or they are massively overcharging customers for Ryanair’s ancillary services, frequently charging 3 or 4 times the Ryanair price to these unsuspecting consumers.

“Ryanair continues to campaign against these OTA pirates and calls upon governments and consumer agencies to take action to prevent this internet piracy and blatant anti-consumer mis-selling.”