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Ryanair plans ‘big’ package division

Ryanair will incentivise millions of UK consumers to book package trips with Ryanair Holidays as part of plans to build a “fairly big” package business from the end of this year.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said: “We’re getting all this flights business. If we upsell 10% into package holidays, it’s extra margin.”

Ryanair will carry 120 million passengers this year and has 21 million active users of its mobile app. Jacobs said: “Their bums are on our seats anyway.”

He told a Travel Weekly Business Breakfast: “The families and couples who come on the Ryanair website [to book] a week or two weeks to Faro, Malaga, Alicante are a huge percentage of bookings.”

Ryanair Holidays relaunched in the UK and Ireland in March with a new partner after being temporarily withdrawn early in the year. It was initially launched in December 2016 and is also live in Germany, Italy and Spain.

Jacobs said: “We’ll incentivise people to try it and keep trying it. We’ll say ‘If you book a holiday we’ll give you a credit for flights’. We’ll put a travel credit in your My Ryanair account to try a holiday, then £5 or £10 off future flights. We’ll incentivise customers into Ryanair Holidays and Ryanair Rooms.” He promised: “You’ll see that towards the end of this year.”

Asked how big Ryanair Holidays would become, he said: “It will be big enough. I don’t have a number, but it will be a meaningful part of the business, a meaningful package holidays brand.

“It won’t be for everybody.

It will take a little time to get people saying ‘This is a website where I can book an entire holiday’.

“But a lot of Brits taking two‑week annual holidays will say ‘It’s just cheaper’.”

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