Cork, Ireland  - Consumers were furious Thursday after Irish airline Aer Lingus retracted business-class tickets to the United States advertised online at 5 euros (8 dollars), national broadcaster RTE reported.

Over 100 customers booked the tickets, which normally retail for over 1,700 euros, between 0630 and 0800 GMT Wednesday, but later received an e-mail from Aer Lingus cancelling the flights.

"Due to a technical error in our reservation system for a brief period a small number of bookings were priced incorrectly.

"This e-mail is to notify you of cancellation of your booking and to advise no funds will be deducted from your account."

A spokesman for the airline said customers should have been aware that there was a mistake.

"Anyone who booked a business-class ticket, which usually retails for about 1,775 euros, and got it so cheaply, should know there was a mistake," Aer Lingus' director of corporate affairs, Enda Corneille, said on RTE radio Thursday morning.

Passengers who booked tickets had already contacted the radio station to express their anger, while the Consumers' Association of Ireland said Aer Lingus had to honour the contracts it had made with them.

"Aer Lingus really has to negotiate with its customers and can't just dismiss them," Dermott Jewell of the Consumers' Association told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Jewell sees legal problems if the airline just cancelled the contracts, as they were binding due to the fact that the customers had already paid.

"You can't just cancel something because you made a mistake," Jewell said. (dpa)