[PR] Ryanair to shut website for a weekend of 22-25 February 2008

Victor

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/notices.php?notice=gops&code=080118-cutovernsk-GB

Ryanair.com Reservation System Changeover/Upgrade 22-25 Feb 08 inc.
From 22:00 hrs on the 22nd February until 23:00hrs on the 25th February 2008 the Ryanair internet and reservation centre booking system will be unavailable due to an essential system changeover/upgrade.

All passenger travel will be unaffected during this period and will operate as normal.

Important: Customers wishing to make, change or review a flight reservation will need to do so either before or after these dates.

The Ryanair website: Destination Information, Travel Questions, Car, Hotel and Insurance booking facilities will be available during the entire changeover/upgrade period.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0208/ryanair.html

Ryanair to shut website for a weekend
Friday, 8 February 2008 18:00
Ryanair is to shut down its entire flight booking system for a whole weekend later this month, it emerged today.

Neither online or telephone customers will be able to book flights between 10pm on Friday, 22 February and 11pm on the following Monday.

Flights will continue as normal during the shutdown, which has been caused by the installation of a new booking system.

AdvertisementRobin Goad, research director at internet analyst Hitwise, said such a long shutdown was 'almost unheard of' for an e-commerce dependent business like Ryanair.

He said, 'It is quite incredible. Sometimes people shut things down for two or three hours. To do so for a whole three or four days is pretty much unheard of.'

Hitwise has calculated that February is one of the busiest traffic months of the year for Ryanair, and close to annual peak volumes just after the New Year.

A Ryanair spokeswoman said, 'We have already taken significant additional advance bookings, and will take more after the shutdown, which will ensure that bookings, loads and financial results will be unaffected.'

Ryanair said its free web check-in service will also not be operating during the bookings system shutdown, and that any passengers affected by this will not be charged the airport check-in fee.

Travellers who have elected to check-in on-line normally have up to two days before travelling to do so.

Access to the Ryanair destination information, travel questions, car, hotel and insurance booking facilities will be available during the weekend.

News of the internet shutdown, which is flagged on the airline's web home page, comes after gloomy trading forecast from management earlier this week.

Chief Executive Michael O'Leary warned the business could suffer from a 'perfect storm' of higher oil prices and weaker consumer demand next year.

jank

Thats a big downtime. Surely they can migrate over time no?
Or is this ryanair doing it on the cheap?

trellheim

3 days out is massive ... there must be serious wars going on if they're ripping out the existing.

and they must be doing it on the cheap if they're ripping out front of house and web [ no telephone bookings ? ] with no interim data transfer/replication

there are solutions on the market designed to handle this more or less seamlessly.

Victor

jank wrote: »

Thats a big downtime. Surely they can migrate over time no?
Or is this ryanair doing it on the cheap?

Only the one hamster.

Red Alert

Probably cheaper in the long run. They shut down the old system, dump the data, do some processing on it, then put in the new one and restore the data. At least it'll probably get done right seen as they've a weekend to do it.

carrotcake

I hope that the staff don't 'forget' that those who chose online check-in shouldn't have to pay to use the check-in desk. Then again, my flight did only cost a cent, so I can't complain that much

daymobrew

jank wrote: »

Thats a big downtime. Surely they can migrate over time no?

I remember the http://www.penaltypoints.ie/ site was closed for a few months while it was updated. :rolleyes:
So, a few days ain't so bad.

seamus

daymobrew wrote: »

I remember the http://www.penaltypoints.ie/ site was closed for a few months while it was updated. :rolleyes:
So, a few days ain't so bad.

For a company that makes most of its sales from its online shop, it's horrific. I doubt it's a case of them trying to do it on the cheap, I'd say they're attempting to minimise the length of time any disruption goes on. Most companies would run the legacy and new-system side-by side before shutting down the old system. But this is troublesome and reduces staff efficiency. At least this way staff go home on Friday and come back in on Monday with still only one system in front of them.

Sounds to me like they're using SAP. Downtime is mandatory. MOL is probably banking on people waiting to book flights, so most if not all of their weekend business will come on and book flights on Monday. Their business model differs a bit from your average shop in that many of its customers won't go elsewhere to get a different flight.