Travel insurer covers stranded Ryanair passengers

A travel insurer has reassured its customers that it will cover travellers who have had their flight bookings cancelled by Ryanair.

The low-cost carrier announced its intention to cancel flight bookings made via third party websites earlier this week.

But today Essential Travel said customers who bought travel insurance before August 6th 2008 are fully covered.

Essential Travel director Stuart Bensusan criticised Ryanair's campaign against so-called screen-scraper websites.

He described Ryanair's decision not to honour these bookings as "baffling and irresponsible".

"The travel industry and economy as a whole faces a serious downturn. This is a time to encourage British holidaymakers, not to put obstacles in their path," he said.

With an estimated 1,000 people per day using third party websites to book flights, thousands of travellers could be affected.