Ryanair's Head of Communications, Peter Sherrard said the company expects further bedding down problems 'over the next day or two'.
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Ryanair last night appealed for passengers' "patience" as the airline's newly revamped website continues to endure "bedding-down problems" in the coming days.
The low-cost carrier's plea came as customers and industry insiders alike slammed the website's often snail-like pace in dealing with bookings.
Ryanair unveiled the new site on Monday, boasting that it had come back online one day ahead of schedule.
The new ryanair.com, however, was plagued with glitches on launch day and again yesterday as customers reported "frozen screens" for upwards of 10 minutes.
Ryanair last night claimed the website had handled as many as 20,000 bookings per hour during the day's peak.
The airline admitted, however, that bookings had tapered off to a rate of less than 5,000 per hour at some points, "when internet access on ryanair.com was temporarily reduced".
Progress
"We are continuing to make significant progress with the cut over to the New Skies system," said a spokesman.
"However, we expect further bedding-down problems over the next day or two and we ask all passengers to be patient with us, as we complete the largest-ever software changeover undertaken by any airline, anywhere in the world."
Industry insiders, however, were heavily critical of Ryanair's handling of the system changeover.
"What they've tried to do is change their server and front-end system in one fell swoop, those are two things you just don't do together because it's too risky," said one.
Ryanair declined to comment on whether the decision to swap both systems together had exacerbated the situation, with a spokeswoman citing a policy of "not commenting on rumour or speculation".
Industry sources were also surprised by Ryanair's decision to shut its website completely for three days (later reduced to two) to completion the website changeover.
The turbulent day on ryanair.com came as stockbrokers Davy noted that the new website had paved the way for Ryanair to ultimately handle 100 million passengers a year.
- Laura Noonan