RYANAIR will launch seven new London routes this summer creating 150 jobs in the capital.
The Irish airline’s boss Michael O’Leary confirmed the investment this week, which also includes the arrival of two new aircraft costing $200million.
The new routes, to Basel, Dubrovnik, Palma, Sarajevo, Tatry, Tirana, and Treviso, will take effect this summer, Mr O’Leary confirmed, while urging customers not to book Ryanair flights with “OTA Pirates”.
“Ryanair is pleased to announce two new aircraft ($200m) and seven new routes for London in S24 (Basel, Dubrovnik, Palma, Sarajevo, Tatry, Tirana, and Treviso), and the creation of 150 high paid aviation jobs,” he said.
He went on to warn customers not to be “duped” by online travel agencies (OTA) who sell their flights at an increased cost.
“OTA Pirates continue to dupe unsuspecting UK consumers by illegally screenscraping the Ryanair.com website and then scamming consumers by overcharging them for our flights and ancillary services but mask this scam by giving Ryanair fake customer contact & payment details,” he explained.
“It’s time for action to outlaw this internet piracy and these anti-consumer scams by OTA pirates,” he added.
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has urged customers to avoid using 'OTA pirates'Last month a High Court judge banned an OTA from taking flight information from Ryanair’s website.
The Irish High Court granted a permanent injunction banning screenscraper Flightbox from publishing flight information taken from the no-frills airline's site.
The judgement confirmed that the practice was in breach of Ryanair’s terms of use, which prohibits OTAs from using bot technology to scrape their website for flight schedules and availability.
Deemed ‘historic and precedent-setting’ by the Irish airline, the court ruling has bolstered Ryanair’s mission to only deal directly with its customers.
Speaking at the time, Ryanair’s Dara Brady said: This historic High Court ruling has reinforced Ryanair’s determination to pursue justice for our customers to ensure they get access to the lowest fares, cannot be overcharged by OTAs, and that they have direct access to manage their bookings and to receive up to date flight information.
“Ryanair does not have a commercial relationship with any OTA or screenscraper and we strongly object to OTAs mis-selling our flights and overcharging consumers."
