Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline in terms of fleet size and passengers carried annually, has announced a new partnership with European tour operator TUI Group. The deal allows TUI to offer Ryanair flights, seats, and baggage prices to their customers as part of a holiday package on the condition that Ryanair does not overcharge customers for Ryanair ancillary revenue products.
The deal will also guarantee that TUI customers have their correct contact and payment information provided to Ryanair directly, ensuring that they have direct access to a personalized ‘myRyanair’ account and can receive important flight information straight to their email inbox.
This deal puts TUI in stark contrast to what Ryanair refers to as “unauthorized” online travel agencies (OTAs) that, according to the airline, “continue to scam and overcharge customers with hidden mark-ups and provide fake customer contact and payment information to Ryanair.” Ryanair has been locked in various legal battles with several OTAs in recent months over unauthorized charges and other practices that the airline claims discriminate against both it and its customers.
As a result of the deal, TUI customers will benefit from TUI displaying Ryanair’s actual real-time fares without hidden mark-ups, will allow customers to provide full contact details and payment information to Ryanair but will also continue to benefit from flexible payment plans and ATOL protection as part of their TUI booking. Additionally, passengers will no longer be required to complete Ryanair’s customer verification process which unauthorized OTAs customers are still required to do.
“We are pleased to announce this partnership with TUI,” said Ryanair’s Dara Brady. “It will enable TUI customers to now book Ryanair flights, seats, and bags as part of their holiday package with the guarantee that they will have full price transparency of Ryanair products and that they will receive any information regarding their flight directly from Ryanair as well as having direct access to their booking through their myRyanair account.”
“This deal separates TUI from the OTA Pirates who continue to dupe and scam consumers by unlawfully screen scraping Ryanair’s website and mis-selling our flights with egregious hidden mark-ups and overcharges,” he added.
“The new agreement follows the Group’s strategy of greater digitalization of the business segments,” said Peter Krüger, Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Executive Officer of Holiday Experiences, TUI Group. “The cooperation with Ryanair will now further expand the range of dynamically packaged TUI holidays and at the same time achieve a further milestone in digitalization. In addition, the cooperation also contributes to our growth strategy – the aim is to achieve additional growth through more products and new guests.”
With the new agreement in place, TUI has become Ryanair’s third approved OTA partner, alongside travel companies loveholidays and Kiwi. The airline’s activity in this area, according to the carrier, “demonstrates how OTAs can work transparently with airlines without scamming or duping customers with hidden mark-ups, overcharges, and invented service fees.”
New Italian base
The deal comes just as the Irish-based low-cost carrier prepares to announce the opening of a new base at Reggio-Calabria Airport (REG) in Italy in April 2024. AeroTime understands that the new base will be equipped with 2-3 aircraft which will operate to eight destinations initially during summer 2024.
The destinations to be served from the new base are Barcelona (BCN), Berlin (BER), Bologna (BLQ), Manchester (MAN), Marseille (MRS), Tirana (TIA), Turin (TRN) and Venice (VCE).