Ryanair claims screen scrape stance has worked

Ryanair claims screen scrape stance has worked

Ryanair has admitted the performance of its consumer website has “improved significantly” since it attempted to improve its connection with some third party sites this summer. The no-frills carrier named and shamed a string of what it called “screen scraping” sites in August this year as part of an effort to sell more fares direct…

Ryanair has admitted the performance of its consumer website has “improved significantly” since it attempted to improve its connection with some third party sites this summer.

The no-frills carrier named and shamed a string of what it called “screen scraping” sites in August this year as part of an effort to sell more fares direct from Ryanair.com.

Travolution later discovered the strategy was also being driven by news that some third party sites, primarily meta search engines, had a negative impact on the speed of the Ryanair site simply because too many searches were being carried out.

Behind the scenes, some officials welcomed moves by sites such as Skyscanner which changed the way they cached their connection with Ryanair in order to reduce the amount of searches being made on the site.

Privately meta search engines were urged to adopt a similar practice or face being barred from the site – a practice being undertaken in conjunction with Microsoft and Navitaire.

It is widely believed that the number of online travel agencies accessing Ryanair has dropped significantly following its complaint to the European authorities, although insiders suggest progress to increase speed on the site is probably due to advances in technology on both sides.

A Ryanair spokeswoman told Travolution: “The performance of the Ryanair website has improved significantly as the number of screenscraping websites unlawfully accessing the site has reduced.”