Ryanair is expanding its on-line venture into a one-stop travel Web site that will offer insurance, hotel accommodation and car rental.
Within three months customers accessing ryanair.com will be able to book accommodation in any of the 43 destination cities serviced by the low-cost airline through Hotel Systems, an Irish-based reservations company. They will also be able to book rental cars through an on-going Hertz contract.
Ryanair will take a fee from companies that sell their services through the site, which has already generated £3.5m since its launch in January.
The cut-price airline is hoping to realise £10m in savings annually by working more efficiently and redirecting new sales business to the Internet . It is hoped this will generate £6m more in revenue per month.
Sales and marketing director Tim Jeans said Ryanair currently has a 60/40 telephone to Internet sales ratio and expects to see that reverse within the next few months.