Ryanair: Spain´s Government reacts

Spain's government has demanded information from Irish airline Ryanair after travel agencies warned the firm was threatening to strand thousands of passengers who booked through online brokers.
The public works ministry is now waiting for an answer from Ryanair about its plans to cancel tickets booked through Spain's leading online bookers, eDreams, Rumbo and Atrapolo, before deciding whether to take further action, a spokeswoman said.
"After the media reports at the weekend, on Monday we acted," said a ministry spokeswoman.
However, she said the ministry would not necessarily take action against Ryanair as a result.
"The ministry only acts if we find a breach to the law on passenger rights."
Ryanair has said it is cancelling all flights booked through online travel agencies, which Ryanair calls screenscrapers, as it considers the sites are acting illegally.
In a statement, Ryanair said getting rid of agencies would speed up passenger processing times on the Ryanair web site and ensure passengers are not paying unnecessary handling charges or higher fares.
The Irish no-frills airline is already taking legal action against online bookers in Spain to stop them selling tickets, as well as against Irish booker BravoFly and German booker Vtours.
"They can't just take something off our web site to resell it," said Ryanair spokesman Daniel de Carvalho.
He said passengers would have to seek refunds from online agencies.
Spanish agencies reacted angrily to Ryanair's latest move.
Edreams said it was exploring legal action against the Irish airline for damage caused to customers for the cancellation of thousands of paid and confirmed bookings.
"Ryanair doesn't want travel agents to offer comparative prices and thereby to show that in many cases Ryanair is the most expensive option," Edreams said in a statement.
Source:Reuters