RYANAIR has done a U-turn
by announcing it is in
active negotiations with
GDS suppliers and will be
making its fares available on
the GDS from mid-2014.
In July the airline stated
that, although it would like
to develop its relationship to
work more closely with agents,
it would not consider operating
on the GDS system.
Ceo, Michael O’Leary,
was quoted in the media as
saying: “In the old days a
travel agent used to charge us
about 10% commission, the
GDS would take another 10%.
Twenty percent of our revenue
was gone for some notion
of distribution service. The
Internet now provides that for
nothing.”
Michael said negotiations
with the GDS suppliers came
as a direct result of the
airline’s attempt to attract the
ourishing market of group
and business travel with the
airline’s new Groups and
Corporate Travel service. He
said the business travel sector
could help Ryanair achieve
passenger growth of over
110 million passengers by
2019. However, without the
help of travel agents, this
market could prove to be too
hard to penetrate.
South African travel
agents have welcomed the
announcement saying it will
offer more choices to their
clients. Kim Kral, operations
manager of FlightSite, says:
“We’d certainly offer Ryanair
as an option. I think it is a
positive step for Ryanair to
be on the GDS as it makes
bookings easier for us to
manage as far as schedule
changes, etcetera, go.”
UK travel agents, though, are
sceptical. The Guild of Travel
Management Companies
(GTMC) in the UK was quoted
in local newspapers as saying
Ryanair still had more work to
do. GTMC’s ceo, Paul Wait,
said: “Ryanair’s biggest job
is convincing the GTMC’s
members that it is more
than losses that are forcing
it to address the business
travel sector. We need to
see and feel that they want
to be a strong partner to the
community, are engaged in
our needs and understand
our concerns. Based on the
announcements made to date,
Ryanair is making headway
in the right direction but we
will remain unconvinced until
it commits to investing in the
products and services required
by both travel managers
and the business travellers
themselves.”
