A Baidu-owned website has come under intense criticism from customers for setting prices too high.
Qunar, an online platform that allows airline companies and travel agents to sell aeroplane tickets, has been accused of being too slow to react to unscrupulous sellers who were overpricing tickets.
As a result of the high volume of complaints, China's four biggest airlines – Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines – have withdrawn from the platform, saying they will no longer be selling their tickets on the site.
In response, Qunar denied that the airlines had left the site due to receiving complaints from customers, but instead insisted the real reason was a disagreement about how tickets should be ranked on the site.
Qunar ranks tickets by price, whereas the airlines had allegedly asked for tickets to be ranked by release date.Â
