Online platforms removed Ryanair flights from their websites: Now bookings slowed by 2%
Ryanair has welcomed the removal of its fares by third-party booking sites even if it has led to a drop of 2% this month. The removal of fares by online platforms follows Ryanair's legal victory over Flightbox and ongoing litigation against Booking Holdings.
In response, Ryanair has offered more discounts on its own website while continuing to work with "fair" platforms such as Google Flights. Although several third-party booking sites have removed Ryanair's fares from their platforms without warning, the carrier says this will not have a significant impact on its balance sheet.
Ryanair, which accuses many online travel agents of unfair practices, estimates a decline in load factor of up to 2% this month.
The Irish ultra-low-cost carrier revealed that in early December, several travel sites such as Booking.com, Kayak and Kiwi suddenly removed Ryanair fares from their platforms, affecting a "small portion" of its ticket sales. The airline said the move affected its load factor by 1-2% in December and January, warning that it would "soften short-term profitability" but not have a significant impact on its annual financial estimates.
The platforms stopped selling shortly after Ryanair won a lawsuit against Flightbox, preventing the screenshotting site from providing Ryanair flight information to online agents. Ryanair is also currently engaged in a lawsuit against Booking Holdings, the owner of Booking.com and other subsidiaries (including Agoda and Kayak), in the United States.
Ryanair has also responded by releasing more discounted fares on its own website, including a 10% discount on over 400,000 fares suitable for flights between January and the end of March.
Ryanair's fight against third-party travel agents has been widely publicized in recent years. The carrier has accused several well-known platforms of charging hidden fees, inflating fares, and other "fraudulent" practices, which result in its customers ending up paying more than if they had bought tickets directly from Ryanair.
As a result, the carrier welcomed the removal of fares from these sites, as said in a statement,
"Ryanair will respond to this long-awaited removal of our flights from travel agency websites by reducing fares where necessary to encourage all passengers to book directly with Ryanair.com, where they are guaranteed to receive the lowest fares without OTA surcharges, fake contact information or other price/refund fraud."
The airline continues to make its fares available on platforms it considers "fair" and "transparent", including Google Flights. After a successful year, Ryanair became the world's largest airline by market capitalization and recorded a 60% increase in profits in the six months to September 2023.
The airline's court battles against online travel agents continue, with several high-profile verdicts in recent months. Many have opposed Ryanair's identity verification process, which requires passengers to use facial recognition or verify their identity at a Ryanair check-in desk before traveling. In response, Ryanair stated that this process was necessary because third-party agents were selling flight tickets incorrectly.
Recently, a Spanish court sided with Ryanair in this case, allowing the airline to continue to comply with its verification requirement. However, in May 2023, the airline lost a 15-year lawsuit against lastminute.com after a Swiss court ruled in favour of the travel site, despite the fact that a year earlier Ryanair had won a case against the same company in France.
