The Secret Sauce Behind Ryanair’s ‘Controlled’ Ticket Sales Through Online Travel Agencies

Ryanair chastised online travel agencies for years for scraping its fares and unilaterally charging higher prices, as well as booking fees and overcharging for ancillary services like checked bags.

But the low-cost carrier in 2024 has made peace and partnered with a handful of online travel agencies, including Expedia, eTraveli Group, lastminute.com, Kiwi, loveholidays.com and, most recently Omio. Ryanair is Europe’s largest airline.

Ryanair has approved all of these online travel agencies to sell its flights on their own websites, although several of these partnerships have not been implemented yet because there is technical work that needs to be completed.

But what has given the airline the confidence to allow these third parties to sell Ryanair flights after all these years of railing against “OTA pirates” and their excesses?

A Twist in the Booking Process for Ryanair Flights

Omio, which enables travelers to patch together and bundle flights, rail tickets, bus rides and ferry trips to create their ideal travel itineraries, detailed a key step in the booking process that contributes to giving Ryanair confidence.

Prior to travelers completing their Ryanair flight bookings, whether on Omio’s desktop or mobile platforms, “there is a step directly from Ryanair that displays all the flight details,” Omio told Skift. “This step and integration ensures all details are verified by the airline itself. In turn, this booking experience allows Ryanair to rely on Omio” to handle customer care for flyers.

Omio said its partnership with the airline enables Ryanair to broaden its ticket sales, and to distribute tickets through approved online travel agencies “in a controlled manner.”

A ‘Standard Contracting Process’ With Ryanair

Asked what Omio was required to do to get approved as a Ryanair authorized online travel agency, Omio said the two companies have a shared vision about customer care and affordable travel. “The partnership between the two has been a natural and standard contracting process,” Omio said.

In a statement, Ryanair Chief Marketing Officer Dara Brady welcomed the partnership, adding that Omio customers will get the “guarantee of full price transparency and full access to their booking.”

Omio, which currently doesn’t have Ryanair directly integrated into its platform, said the partnership is slated to go live in late September and early October.

Expedia, too, is among the online travel agencies waiting for their Ryanair partnerships to be implemented.

Founded in 2013 and based in Berlin, Omio offers “multimodal travel” in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Its two largest brands are Omio and Rome2Rio.