An airline mistake led online travel agencies to accidentally post a Toronto to Cyprus flight for less than 40 U.S. dollars, local press reported Saturday.

Italian airline Alitalia accidentally listed the business-class flight at 39 dollars on a central reservation system which feeds the information to online booking agencies, Brian Hoyt, director of public relations for Chicago-based Orbitz, was quoted as saying.

Orbitz is the third-largest online travel agency based on gross bookings.

The round-trip airfare from Toronto to Cyprus, with a stop to switch planes in Italy, was available for multiple departing dates, Hoyt said, adding that "we had a conversation with them about what had occurred."

"What the airline agreed to do was honor all of the fares that had been ticketed through Orbitz.com," he said.

Orbitz will refund those customers who paid a service fee to the website but were not ticketed, according to Hoyt.

The mistake was due to a worker who forgot to enter in two extra digits on the system, an Alitalia spokeswoman said.

The regular business fare on that route is 2,258 dollars.

Source: Xinhua