Ryanair experiences website problem

Ryanair has been suffering from system problems that have slowed the online booking process for its customers and led to the carrier waiving check-in fees at airports.

This is the second major glitch since Ryanair re-launched its website in February of this year. After shutting the site down for a weekend, it experienced several days of problems at that time.

The carrier has acknowledged that it is taking its customers as long as one minute to navigate between pages when attempting to book a flight, but it insists that the booking process can be completed. Customers are not receiving email confirmations of the bookings, however.

Ryanair has recommended that passengers take note of the flight details and the confirmation number, and then to wait several minutes before revisiting the site to determine if they can retrieve their booking and confirm that payment has been processed.

On-line check-in is also not an option for passengers at this time, and that is the reason for the carrier waiving check-in charges at the airport. Earlier in the month Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair issued a warning that the carrier would have to keep raising charges at airports, and said: “If you check in at the airport and with a bag we will fine you.”

The loss of revenue from airport charges will be difficult for the carrier at a time when it, along with other airlines, relies on ancillary revenue to drive profit. If passengers avoid making their bookings, however, costs to the airline will be much more significant.

In February, Ryanair’s expanded site offered significantly enhanced capacity and the flexibility for the carrier to add options and fees that were not possible with the old site.

Since the troubled launch, the carrier has been attempting to add new features regularly. It remains unclear whether the current problems are related to overloading, compatibility issues – or something else entirely.

www.ryanair.com provides more information on the current status.