Budget airline Ryanair has signed a partnership with online travel agent (OTA) Lastminute.com, which will allow the site to sell Ryanair tickets and packages.
The budget airline has had a long and fractured history with OTAs, previously branding the sites “pirates” for selling Ryanair tickets and scraping its website contents without an agreement.
The three-year deal will allow the Switzerland-listed site to list all Ryanair flights, providing Ryanair with customers’ information and allowing customers access to their myRyanair account and flight information.
Crucially, the deal will remove the customer verification process that is levied against unapproved OTAs, significantly increasing ease of access and booking times.
Ryanair’s Dara Brady said: “This milestone partnership is great news for consumers as lastminute.com will now be authorised to offer Ryanair’s low-fare flights as part of their dynamic holiday packages and flights, putting them in stark contrast to the unauthorised OTAs who continue to overcharge customers with hidden mark-ups and provide fake customer contact and payment …