THE AER Lingus website crashed for more than two hours yesterday follow a surge in booking activity from bargain hunters responding to the airline's first "no fare" offer.
Borrowing a marketing ploy commonly associated with Ryanair, the airline yesterday started a four-day seat sale offering "free" flights, to the UK and the rest of Europe. Taxes and charges must still be paid.
The sale prompted a level of disbelief among some customers, which increased when the website went down at about 11am. One contacted The Irish Timesto express the belief that the offer was the result of a glitch on the site that was been taken down as a result.
However, a spokeswoman explained that the "intermittent problems" on the website were caused by a "huge surge" in booking activity after the launch of the offer yesterday. Problems arose after the airline sent an e-mail to customers offering free flights to destinations in Europe. She said the site was fixed again by lunchtime yesterday.
"The site is now fully operational and we are looking forward to offering our customers this great offer for the next four days."
The sale covers flights taken between November 4th and December 18th, and January 12th and February 12th next year. From Dublin, 15 destinations are covered and from Cork, five. The airline has also reduced fares on its North American routes next year.
This is not the first time there have been problems with the website. Earlier this year, the airline had to give hundreds of customers €5 tickets to cross the Atlantic after an error was made on the site. The error arose when promotional fares were accidentally placed online.
Last year, the accidental disappearance of some flights between Cork and London from the website led to fears in Munster that the service was about to be axed.