Booking sites remove Ryanair sales

NEWS FLASH

Prominent Online Travel Agents (OTAs) including Booking.com, Kiwi and Kayak have removed the sale of Ryanair flights from their platforms. It comes after an Irish High Court ruling banned screenscraper Flightbox from gathering Ryanair flight information for OTAs. Ryanair said the websites' removal of flights would increase empty seats by 1% or 2% in January. The airline said that while ticket revenues may also be affected, the move was unlikely to "materially affect" its full-year passenger numbers or profit expectations. The carrier noted it would respond by lowering fares for passengers booking directly through its own website. In a statement, Ryanair described the online agents as "pirates". It said it would "continue to make its fares available to honest/transparent online travel agents such as Google Flights", which it said "do not add hidden mark ups to Ryanair prices and who direct passengers to make their bookings directly on the Ryanair.com website". Ryanair said the "welcome removal" of its flights might have been a result of pressure from national consumer protection agencies or new customer verification measures it has taken. The company has been in a long-running dispute with online booking sites, after the airline launched legal action in the US against Booking.com owner Booking Holdings and its subsidiaries including Kayak, Agoda and Priceline. Ryanair will be the third-largest carrier across the markets of the former Yugoslavia this year, with 5.9 million seats currently on sale in the region in 2024. A total of 4.9 million of those seats are allocated for the Croatian market, where it will be the largest airline, ahead of second-placed Croatia Airlines with 2.8 million seats.