On Saturday a noticeably contrite Ryanair addressed corporate travel agents at the Advantage Travel Partnership conference as the airline looks to put 14 years of antagonism with the trade behind it. Lee Hayhurst reports
When Ryanair’s Lesley Kane told Advantage corporate agents the budget airline was determined to work with the trade, it felt as if 14 years of antagonism might finally be being put to one side.
Polled for their views on whether they thought Ryanair would do enough in the future to persuade agents to work with them, double the number said ‘yes’ than said ‘no’ once they’d heard what Kane had to say.
This was a far more positive result than before Kane spoke, when the room was asked whether Ryanair currently offers enough support and only four responded ‘yes’.
What this indicated was that despite the enduring anger over how Ryanair, and in particular its outspoken boss Michael O’Leary, has sought to actively alienate and even offend agents, they are likely to forgive and forget as the sheer commercial sense of partnering with Europe’s self-styled ‘ultra low-cost airline’ becomes clear.
A number of practical issues remain, such as its fares not currently being available on all GDSs, the functionality on the one GDS – Travelport – not yet being up to scratch yet, and a lack of support and lingering suspicion among agents.
But Kane left agents in no doubt it was back and determined to grow, broadening distribution by embracing third parties.
She said she expected O’Leary, “the most hated man in the travel trade”, to be a little more gracious the next time he speaks at a trade event, although his role as the public face of the airline is being curtailed despite being at the forefront of how Ryanair is changing behind the scenes.
So what does Ryanair’s complete about-turn mean for the airline?
GTMC chief executive Paul Wait believes that for Ryanair’s new approach to truly work, it will have to sacrifice its prized reputation as being a low-cost carrier.
He said the recent GTMC business travel survey revealed that the vast majority of travellers live around Gatwick and Heathrow and need to fly on high frequency business routes to major cities in Europe.
“Ryanair needs to fly out of Heathrow and Gatwick ,but that’s not going to be possible unless one or both of those airports are expanded. If that was to happen Ryanair ceases to be a low-cost carrier,” he said.
Kane, however, dismissed this as a possibility ,indicating growth would be centred on its main UK base at Stansted which is primed to increase from 13 million to 20 million passengers annually over the next five years, driven partly by more capacity on high frequency corporate routes.
Stansted may remain deeply unpopular with the many frequent business travellers who work within a stone’s throw of Liverpool Street Station in London’s commercial centre, but could increased demand be the catalyst for better links to the airport?
One thing that Kane did rule out was an API for online agents – Ryanair is understood to remain in legal disputes with a number of European ‘screen-scrapers’.
But outside of that, Ryanair is promising to put in place all of the services and support mechanisms you’d expect from a trade-friendly supplier, including a dedicated help desk and a business traveller fare last this year.
Kane said: “We came off the GDSs in 2000, and that decision was made because of the cost of distribution and paying travel agent commission meant it was not viable for us to continue with those costs. Now GDS costs have been reduced and we no longer pay travel agent commission.”
Kane added Ryanair now accepted agents charge a handling fee. “That’s progress,” she said. “Michael O’Leary has been vocal that travel agents should not be charging handling fees. Now there is an acceptance that that is how the industry works.
“When we came off the GDSs that was the right decision at the time. Now we want to go after wider distribution channels and grow our passenger traffic. It’s a win-win situation for Ryanair and the TMCs (Travel Management Companies).
“There is an acceptance that TMCs do back Ryanair already. We are now making it easier for TMCs. This is all above board – we are focused on improving our distribution. There is no getting away from the fact we have a significant amount of work to do.”
Much of that work, Kane openly admitted, was undoing some of the damage O’Leary himself has done, situations she described as “not that positive”.
“We recognise the importance of being out there working with the trade and hopefully convey the message we really want to work with trade and grow our business traffic.”
Ryanair will spend £35 million this year communicating to the consumer that it is changing. “We have realised that over recent years we have done things which have pissed off our customers. There are very few airlines out there who can say ‘look we messed up’,” Kane said.
“We are listening to our customers because we realise how important it is to build a product that the customers like and will recommend. We are taking very small baby steps week by week as we learn how the industry works.”
Guy Snelgar, Amadeus head of sales and consulting, summed up the trade’s response: “I was delighted to see Lesley come here to talk to us; it’s a very positive move forward.
“I think the work they are doing in terms of moving back towards the GDS, setting up a help desk, creating a business travel product… while there is a long way to go those things have to be seen as a positive step.
“It’s great to hear that level of honesty and engagement from Ryanair; hopefully we will see some results coming out of that.