Ryanair likely to do more online agent deals

Ryanair could do more deals with online travel agents in coming months, following Monday’s agreement with Kiwi.com and a recent partnership with Loveholidays, according to chief executive Michael O’Leary.

The airline reported that profits plunged 93 per cent to €15 million in the three months to the end of December, as higher fuel and other costs hit its bottom line, but it earned a surplus of €2.19 billion over the nine months from April to the end of 2023.

Ryanair later announced that it had agreed that online travel agent, Kiwi.com, could sell the airline’s flights to its customers. It entered a similar partnership with Loveholidays earlier this month.

Kiwi.com must provide customers with Ryanair’s prices for flights and extras, and give their contact and payment details to the Irish carrier.

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Speaking to industry analysts after Ryanair published results for the first nine months of its financial year, Mr O’Leary said the airline was in talks with most of the top 10 online agents about possible partnerships.

He stressed that any such deals would be conditional on the agents not adding extra charges to Ryanair’s prices and providing the airline with customers’ details.

He said Ryanair had no problem with online agents charging their own fees, as long as they made it clear that it was they, and not the airline, that were adding those costs.

Mr O’Leary told analysts that Ryanair would continue its lawsuit against online giant Booking.com, which it accuses of screen scraping, that is, accessing the airline’s website and offering its flights as they were the agent’s own. Booking.com contests the claims.

“We are not particularly minded to settle with them,” the airline chief said.

Ryanair has fought several court battles with other online agents, including Kiwi.com.

Earlier the airline said fares were “softer than expected” in December after several agents stopped selling its flights on their websites.

Meanwhile, Mr O’Leary said Ryanair would take any Boeing 737 Max 10s that US carrier United did not take up, but only at the right price.

United’s chief executive, Scott Kirby, last week said the carrier was drawing new fleet plans that did not include the Max 10, even though his airline had ordered 277 of them.

Mr O’Leary said if the US carrier went through with those plans, Ryanair would take jets originally destined for United on time for summer 2026, but not this year. “But I’m sure there will be a queue of rapacious aircraft lessors and others also willing to take them,” he cautioned.

Neil Sorahan, Ryanair’s chief financial officer, said Boeing would deliver 50 new Max aircraft to the Irish airline this year, seven fewer than originally scheduled.

He said he visited the US manufacturer recently and the company had agreed to put resources into extra quality assurance and engineering oversight.

Mr O’Leary predicted that air fares would continue rising in Europe this year, as many airlines would struggle to add capacity while demand would continue growing.

Ryanair’s summer bookings are running ahead of this time last year, according to its chief executive, who said its holiday fares had increased by “low single digits”.

He said that at this stage, he believed prices could increase further during the spring and summer, but added that it was always difficult to predict.

Ryanair said rising fuel costs, pay restoration and higher crewing ratios, to allow it cope with problems such as air traffic control strikes, led to the fall in profits over the three months to the end of December.

The airline has cut full-year profit predictions for the 12 months ended March 31st to €1.85 billion-€1.95 billion. It had previously said it expected profits to be €1.85 billion-€2.05 billion.