Ryanair's site closure slammed

Ryanair is to close its website booking engine for a long weekend so it can be updated to meet guidelines set down by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Information about flights will still be available but Ryanair is updating its booking system to make sure all prices include taxes, as stipulated by the OFT.

The closure will begin on Saturday 22 February and last until midnight on Monday 25 February.

But the decision has been slammed by website performance monitoring company SciVisum who said it was "commercial lunacy".

"Ryanair is quite well known for being a pretty shrewd business, but taking its booking service offline for a long weekend is the equivalent of a High Street retailer shutting up shop for a week," said SciVisum's Deri Jones.

"And to close it on Valentines' weekend – one of the busiest times of the year – is just barmy! Ryanair might as well include a link to easyJet's website. It's commercial lunacy."

Jones said the closure was the result of Ryanair's bad planning.

"It's a silly situation that the company has got itself in. The OFT set out its guidelines a long time ago, and unlike the other airlines, Ryanair has failed to get its house in order," he said.

Ryanair was in the news recently after it called the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) a "quango" after the airline was censured for an advert it ran containing a picture of a schoolgirl.

www.ryanair.com
www.scivisum.co.uk