Ryanair agrees deal to woo business customers
Europe’s largest low-cost carrier has cancelled charges for checked-in bags on some fares, offered free flight changes and fast-track passage through airport security in an attempt to attract business travellers who have tended to shun the budget airline.
Ryanair has for years sold tickets exclusively through its website, but chief executive Michael O’Leary said it would need additional global distribution channels to reach what he described as old-style business class customers in Europe.
“In north America, people don’t want to waste time in business lounges or drinking bad champagne at seven o’clock in the morning. They want to get to the airport, get through it quickly, and go do their business,” Mr O’Leary told a news conference in Germany.
“Europe is going to move in that direction in the next five years, but we need Amadeus’s help to make Ryanair visible to global distribution system agents and consumers whose wives and children might be on the Ryanair.com website, but they won’t be.
“It’s the way we broaden Ryanair’s appeal.”
The strategy is part of the airline’s plans to almost double passenger numbers from 82 million a year to 150 million as it brings up to 380 Boeing jets on stream over the next decade.
The agreement with Amadeus is the second such distribution deal Ryanair has signed this year after partnering with distribution services company Travelport in March.
