"We advise passengers not to risk their summer holiday plans": Ryanair

Ryanair has warned passengers against booking their summer holidays with "flaky charter airlines or shoddy holiday companies".

The carrier predicted that the spate of airline bankruptcies, which disrupted the summer holiday plans of millions of passengers this year, looks set to continue into next year.

Launching its 2009 Summer Schedule, Ryanair warned that the high profile bankruptcies of Futura Gael, XL Holidays (UK), Zoom, Sterling and LTE, which left millions of people stranded this year, highlighted the need for passengers to travel with secure airlines which can survive the global economic downturn. 

"Ryanair's summer schedule offers the guaranteed lowest airfares, no fuel surcharge and the security of travelling with Europe's most financially secure airline, on over 800 summer routes across 26 European countries with over 50 million seats available from March to October."