Low-cost airline Ryanair is trying to encourage more passengers to buy airline tickets over the internet by restricting telephone bookings to last-minute sales only. From 15 June the airline will only accept telephone bookings for flights departing within 30 day. All other bookings must be made on the internet.

The no-frills carrier wants to cut costs by limiting the number of telephone calls to its call centre. It already offers a £5 round-trip discount for airfares booked via its website www.ryanair.com.

'We want to keep costs as low as possible so we can continue to offer low fares,' said Ryanair sales and marketing director Tim Jeans.