Irish airline takes over website dedicated to bad travel experiences

Budget airline Ryanair, based in Ireland, recently took over a website dedicated to highlighting passengers' bad travel experiences with the company.

Nominet, the UK's domain name registrar and dispute service, forced IHateRyanair.co.uk founder Robert Tyler to hand over control of the domain to Ryanair. Tyler was forced to give up the domain because he made money on it from travel advertisements for other companies.

“It is the very nature of a criticism website that discussion should be open and not influenced by commercial concerns", adjudicator Jane Seager wrote in her judgement.

Tyler earned earned £322 from advertisements for other companies’ products between January and May of this year. Travel insurance and currency exchange services were among the website's top advertisers.

Angry travelers were encouraged to share horror stories about their experiences with Ryanair on IHateRyanair.co.uk. According to Computerworld UK, many of the stories began by describing Ryanair as the “world’s most hated airline”. But the ruling won't stop Tyler, who is from London. He said he'll continue the site's work at ihateryanair.org.