Ryanair hits back at online travel giants despite conflict and cancellations.
Ryanair has cut its profit forecast for the year to the end of March from a previously estimated €2,05 billion to €1,95 billion. This adjustment is partly the result of higher fuel costs. In the last three months of 2023, Ryanair reported lower-than-expected profits of €15 million. Also notable was that travel websites such as Kiwi, Booking.com and Kayak suddenly stopped showing Ryanair bookings in their listings.
Although the precise reason for this action is unclear, it has been suggested that it could be related to a recent Irish High Court ruling, which banned website Flightbox from collecting Ryanair flight information for online travel agencies. Ryanair, the well-known budget airline, recently hit out at some major online travel agencies for unexpectedly removing their flights from these platforms. This incident, which took place in December last year, mainly concerns major players such as Booking.com, Kiwi and Kayak.
scrape
The development followed a ruling by the Irish High Court, which banned the scraping of Ryanair flight information by the online tool Flightbox. This scraping, also called 'screen scraping', is the process of collecting information and data from websites for use by online travel agencies. Ryanair claims that the removal of their flights from these websites could lead to a 1% to 2% increase in empty seats in December and January. While this is expected to impact ticket revenues, the airline does not expect this to have a significant impact on overall passenger numbers or full-year profit expectations.
Legal jousting over flight information, but Ryanair tackles online travel agencies after flight removal.
In response to this situation, Ryanair has announced it will reduce fares for passengers who book directly through their own website. In a statement, Ryanair called the online travel agencies “pirates” and highlighted its continued partnership with “honest and transparent online travel agencies such as Google Flights,” which do not add hidden surcharges to Ryanair prices and direct passengers directly to the Ryanair website for bookings .
The airline speculates that the “welcome removal” of its flights may be the result of pressure from national consumer protection authorities or new customer verification measures it has introduced. Ryanair has been in a legal conflict with online booking sites for some time. For example, the airline has taken legal action in the United States against Booking Holdings, the owner of Booking.com, and its subsidiaries, including Kayak, Agoda and Priceline.
profit increase
Booking Holdings, the manager of Booking.com, Kayak and Kiwi.com, has indicated that it does not wish to comment on the ongoing legal proceedings between Booking.com and Ryanair in the United States. The conflict comes amid a profit increase for Ryanair in November following a price increase. The airline reported an 11% increase in passenger numbers to a record 105,4 million in the six months to September, despite an average price increase of 24%. This resulted in an almost 60% increase in profits for the period to €2,18 billion (£1,9 billion).
Notably, Ryanair reported that it carried 12,5 million passengers in December, an increase of 9% compared to the same period in 2022, despite the cancellation of more than 900 flights due to the war in Gaza. The average number of empty seats per flight increased from 8% to 9% in December.
Another major point of discussion is the airline's relationship with Boeing, amid challenges and changes in the aviation industry. Ryanair is involved in developments surrounding Boeing, especially in relation to the Boeing 737 MAX. Despite recent safety issues with Boeing, including the temporary grounding of the 737 MAX by the Federal Aviation Authority and United Airlines' doubts about future orders of the 737 MAX 10, Ryanair remains a staunch supporter of Boeing.
Ryanair's CEO, Michael O'Leary, has indicated that if United Airlines or other airlines decide not to accept their MAX 10 orders, Ryanair will be happy to take their place. The airline expects to receive 50 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft before the summer and plans to receive 2032 Boeing MAX 300 aircraft by 10.
Ryanair reported in the third quarter of 2023 that they had 136 Boeing 737 Max aircraft in their fleet, with an expectation that this number would rise to 2024 by the end of June 174, just before the peak of the summer months. However, this is seven aircraft fewer than the originally contracted deliveries. Despite these delays, Ryanair has noticed an improvement in the quality of the planes coming from Boeing.
