03 January 2024 , 10:48
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Ryanair tickets are no longer available on a number of popular travel agent websites amid an ongoing battle between the airline and the retailers.
The Irish airline has announced that big sites like Booking.com, Kiwi and Kayak have removed its fares from their platforms since early December. Ryanair welcomed the move away from what it called online travel agent "pirates", but admitted it could affect its load factor - a measure of how full its planes are - by 1% or 2% in December and January.
As Ryanair plans to lower fares for passengers booking directly through its own website, passengers may see the cost of their tickets on the budget airline fall a little.
The increase in air fares seen on Ryanair flights last year - which climbed to an average of about €58 (£50) - was partly powered by higher fuel costs. Last summer Ryanair predicted that fares would see "mid-teens percentage" rises during the last three months of 2023.
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In December, Ryanair saw a 9% increase in passengers, flying 12.5 million people, but its load factor dropped to 91% from 92% the previous year.
The update comes amid a long-running dispute between Ryanair and online booking sites, with the airline having launched legal action in the US against Booking.com owner Booking Holdings and its subsidiaries including Kayak, Agoda and Priceline.
Ryanair said it was not clear what the reason was behind its removal from the sites, but said it may be down to a recent Irish High Court ruling, which it said granted Ryanair a permanent injunction against screenscraper Flightbox from "unlawfully scraping Ryanair.com content" for online travel agents.
Screen-scraping involves a third party accessing an airline's website and often offering the carrier's fares to its own customers via its own site.
A spokesperson for Ryanair 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 without OTA Pirate overcharges, fake contact info, or other pricing/refund scams."
"In the meantime, Ryanair continues to make its fares available to honest/transparent OTA's such as Google Flights, who do not add hidden mark ups to Ryanair prices and who direct passengers to make their bookings directly on the Ryanair.com website."
The Mirror has approached Booking.com, Kayak and Kiwi for comment.
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