Customers of travel agent On the Beach will be able to buy Ryanair flights direct from the Irish airline after the pair announced a new deal on Tuesday.
Ryanair said it had agreed a partnership with the online travel agent that will allow On the Beach customers buy flights and extras direct from the carrier’s website.
The deal guarantees that the agent will not add its own extra charges to Ryanair prices for seats, bags or extras, while holidaymakers can communicate directly with the airline for flight information and other details.
Customers will get flight information direct to their email addresses, including terms and conditions and possible disruptions. On the Beach will display only Ryanair’s prices.
The deal is the latest that Ryanair has struck with online travel agents this year. It recently announced similar partnerships with Kiwi and Loveholidays.
Ryanair has fought legal battles with several online travel agents, accusing them of wrongfully scraping its website, adding extra charges of their own for flights and ancillaries and not providing the airline with the correct contact information.
It is continuing with an action against one of market leaders, Booking.com, but has done deals with others on condition that customers book flights through the Ryanair website, the agent adds no extra charges and the airline communicates directly with the passenger.
Michael O’Leary, Ryanair chief executive, said last month it was likely that the airline would do a number of deals with online agents this year, on those terms.
Dara Brady, Ryanair’s director of marketing, communications and digital, noted that the On the Beach partnership was the airline’s fourth such agreement.
Shaun Morton, chief executive, On the Beach, dubbed the deal transformational. “This will improve the booking and travel experience for our customers selecting Ryanair flights, while ensuring we can continue to provide customers with best-value package holidays,” he said.
