Ryanair anticipates passenger numbers will be affected by up to 2pc by the decision of online travel agents (OTAs) to delist the airline from their websites, including brands like Booking.com, Kiwi and Kayak.
The airline expects the delisting will reduce its load factor by up to 2pc in January and predicts a short-term dip in ticket revenue as more low fares are made available on its website to encourage direct booking. Shares in the airline fell 4pc as a result of the decision. Ryanair’s December load factor was down by 1pc.
Ryanair says these OTA websites only constitute a small fraction of Ryanair’s business, and predicts this situation will not substantially affect its annual passenger numbers or profit expectations. Shares in the airline fell 4pc as a result of the decision.
The reason for the de-listing is due to an Irish High Court ruling last year granting an injunction to Ryanair against unlawful content scraping or it might be associated with an ongoing legal dispute in the US against Booking.com owner, Booking Holdings.
Ryanair has been engaged for many years to prevent online travel agents from screen-scraping and reselling its flights on their own platforms, involving several legal actions including a significant lawsuit in the US against Kayak and Booking.com.
The airline has enforced measures requiring passengers who made bookings via third-party websites to verify their identities, discouraging such purchases and leading to many agents removing Ryanair flights from their sites.
Ryanair anticipates that the removal of their flights from third-party sites will cause a reduction in load factors and yields in the short term, but expects to post a profit after tax of up to €2.05bn for the financial year ending in March.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said: “Ryanair will respond to this welcome removal of our flights from OTA [online travel agent]pirate websites, by lowering fares where necessary to encourage all passengers to book directly on Ryanair.com where they are guaranteed to always get the lowest air fares. “In the meantime, Ryanair continues to make its fares available to honest/ and transparent OTA’s such as Google Flights”.
Online travel agents accounted for about 10pc of Ryanair’s ticket sales pre pandemic. By 2021, they accounted for 20pc.
