Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary says Ryanair is taking action against Thomas Cook, accusing the travel company of inflating its flight prices and adding fuel surcharges to its fares.

The low cost carrier claims that Thomas Cook, in the case of one passenger, added £80 per flight for fuel surcharges despite the fact that Ryanair does not have fuel surcharges.

In addition, Ryanair claims that Thomas Cook, one of the UK's largest travel agents, inflated the cost of its fares by up to £80.

Ryanair wants Thomas Cook to refund all customers who have bought Ryanair flights and paid fuel surcharges or fares higher than they would have paid had they bought their ticket direct from the airline.

Stranded by Ryanair: the rant that became a book

Stranded in Spain courtesy of Ryanair, Paul Kilduff ruminates on the debt we owe Michael O’Leary and his no-frills revolution

• Mobile phones take off on Ryanair

Ryanair: our 40 favourite headlines

Nobody has generated more travel news and comment than Michael O'Leary and his airline. Here are some highlights of the past decade

Ryanair: no complaints about mobiles

Chief executive Michael O'Leary says most passengers are just texting because calls are so expensive

• Ryanair fights to reduce passenger luggage

• Ryanair and the 'idiot bloggers'

• Ryanair slams 'Thomas Crooks' for overcharging

Related Links

• Stranded by Ryanair: the rant that became a book

Responding to the accusations, Thomas Cook says a mistake was made on the booking cited by Ryanair.

A statement issued by the company today reads: "...regrettably the customer has been incorrectly charged a fuel supplement due to a system error."

“We believe that this is an isolated case due to a system error, but we will be fully investigating this matter. Thomas Cook will be contacting the customer to offer a full refund”.

The company statement added that, as of autumn last year, it no longer sells Ryanair flights.

Ryanair wants all flights to be sold through its own website, and currently estimates that around 5,000 flights per year are being sold by "screen-scraping websites", which electronically extract Ryanair prices from its site and make bookings outside ryanair.com.

In an effort to crack down on this practice, Ryanair is cancelling the flights of any bookings made through outlets other than the Ryanair website.

O'Leary told journalists told that the carrier is cancelling up to 100 of these bookings per week. Customers are contacted up to two weeks before their flight informing them of the cancellation and offering them a refund.

Money Central: 20 reasons never to fly Ryanair

Times recommends

• Oasis of the Seas: the Times review
• The 20 best new year party places to stay
• Green Spaces 2009: are you the winning writer?