Booking platforms such as Booking.com, Kayak and Kiwi no longer offer Ryanair flights since December, the Irish budget airline announced on Wednesday.
In the short term, this will lead to a drop in the load factor of 1 to 2 percentage points, the airline said. But on the other hand, this should also lead to lower prices, because there are no more intermediaries involved. Ryanair would like more customers to book directly, it said on Wednesday.
Longer term, the airline expects “no material impact” on volumes or profit after tax for this financial year, as third-party bookings represent only a small portion of the total. The airline previously predicted an annual profit of between 1.85 billion and 2.05 billion euros.
It is not known why the booking websites no longer offer Ryanair flights, but there has been an imbalance between them and the Irish low-cost airline for some time. There may be a connection with a ruling by an Irish judge on the automatic transfer of flight data. In the US there is a lawsuit between Ryanair and various websites.
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