More than 100 criminals have been arrested as they got off flights at dozens of airports around the world after a crackdown on criminal organisations who buy tickets using stolen credit card details.

Europol headed up the operation which involved 45 countries.

Airline companies estimate that every year up to one billion dollars worth of flights are booked by criminal organisations.

Europol spokesperson Wil Van Gemert explained how the flights are used. “Mostly it is not the ones who want to have a cheap holiday. It is organised crime, it is also offered in an organised way to criminals and what we see in the records that we have, the databases of Europol, it is possible to also identify organsied crime. Be it drugs trafficking, illegal immigration, fraud committed, so these are also the criminals themselves using the system,” he said.

Europol say it is a great example of how they can crack cyber crime after around 50 law enforcement agencies, as well as banks and airlines joined together to carry out the sting operation.