“All Ryanair flights will soon be able to be booked directly with TUI and they will be able to be combined with TUI’s full travel offering,” said a press release from the tour operator. “The agreement will provide our customers with more travel options than ever before.” The addition of Ryanair flights to TUI’s holiday offering will give UK travelers in particular more options.
Airline Ryanair, for its part, emphasizes that TUI is committed to charging customers the prices that Ryanair itself charges. TUI is now the third booking platform with which Ryanair has reached an agreement, after loveholidays and Kiwi.com.
During his most recent press conference in Brussels in mid-January, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary had lashed out at a number of online travel agencies. According to O’Leary, these “pirates” make customers pay too much by charging surcharges for services that Ryanair does not offer or offers much cheaper, such as a “premium” service or a seat reservation. The various agreements that have been reached in the meantime “demonstrate that booking platforms can work with airlines in a transparent manner without deceiving or disadvantaging customers,” according to Ryanair.