Ryanair has denied its threat to cancel bookings made through screen-scrapers was a publicity stunt and warned it would do the same to any agents using its website.

There was little evidence of widespread cancellations in the 48 hours after the policy was introduced this week.

The airline insisted it had cancelled “a number” of bookings made through the Irish Bravofly website, but would not give figures.

Abta and Advantage had not heard from any members affected by cancellations by the end of Wednesday.

But Ryanair, which issued the threat as it launched a £5 seat sale, insisted it would continue to cancel bookings made through third-party websites, and extended the threat to any agent booking a flight on ryanair.com on behalf of a customer.

Spokesman Stephen McNamara admitted it was difficult to identify bookings made through screen-scrapers, and spotting those made by agents would be harder. But he said the airline would use methods such as looking for multiple use of one credit card.

“We are going after screen-scrapers who flood the site with requests so, in practice, this is not going to be a problem for a small high street travel agent. But if we find bookings that are obviously made by a travel agent for commercial reasons then we have the right to cancel and we will do so,” he said.

Ryanair’s latest threat came as Abta referred the airline to the Office of Fair Trading, claiming its actions were an unfair practice that would harm consumers.

Abta has advised members to keep a close watch on emails from Ryanair or from intermediaries booking the airline in case they indicate cancellations.

Ken McLeod, head of business travel at Advantage, said no members had reported bookings being cancelled.

He said cancellations would be “immoral” because the customer had paid for a service from the airline in good faith.

“I suspect it is partly a scare tactic. I can’t see Ryanair doing it on every booking that is screen-scraped,” he said. But he added screen-scraping is an issue for the entire industry as many airlines find it makes their websites run more slowly.