Who is doing the slapping here - Ryanair or the industry?

Today's revelation that Ryanair has already cancelled the tickets of around 2,500 people since it implemented its controversial no-screen scraped tickets shouldn't be a huge surprise.

The airline is fiercely stubborn when it comes to marketing and distribution - an approach which clearly comes from the top of the company.

And it has done well out of it so far, let's face it.

Our source for the story told us that all the ticket cancellations so far had been carried out online - in other words, no passengers had turned up at the check-in desk and been turned away.

This is quite a feat.

But given that 400-500 customers every single day this week have been on the receiving end of a cancelled ticket by Ryanair - or at least the intermediary has - it seems strange that some of the UK's tabloid press have not run 'Outraged of Essex'-style stories this week.

This leads us to believe that the cancellations have carried out strategically, to minimise any groundswell of negative consumer opinion.

Our mole with the harp in Dublin asked us if we had received any calls as yet. We have not.

Anyway, Musings made a good point about Ryanair yesterday. The airline is protecting itself - it's a natural reaction in some respects, especially in troubled times for the air industry.

Ironically, the travel trade has reacted like there is a huge injustice here - even Abta has waded in.

But one wonders that if this issue had been brought up by any other supplier than Ryanair, which is often the industry's favourite whipping boy, primarily because it does things single-mindedly and without the need for the trade, then the reaction would be any different?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

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