Ryanair develops platform to handle travel agency bookings 

Ryanair has developed a new “authorised distribution platform” to allow travel agents to book flights directly.

The Travel Agent Direct (TAD) channel has been designed to allow offline travel agents to book Ryanair flights, “ensuring full transparency for passengers,” Europe’s largest airline said.

The new booking platform is the latest development in the no-frills airline’s distribution commitment to only partner with “trusted and authorised” travel agencies.

The initiative provides “full price transparency and assurance that customers will receive essential flight updates directly with no need to complete Ryanair’s customer verification”. 

The airline said: "This is in stark contrast to unauthorised online and offline travel agencies who refuse to partner with Ryanair, and who continue to scrape data and mislead customers with hidden mark-ups.”  

Travel Agent Direct “will simplify the process” for traditional travel agencies by enabling them to access Ryanair’s network of more than 3,600 daily flights to over 230 destinations across Europe, the airline claimed.

Chief marketing officer Dara Brady said: “We are delighted to launch our Travel Agent Direct platform which means authorised travel agencies, will have access to Ryanair’s low-fare flights to over 230 destinations for their customers, provided they ensure full price transparency for all Ryanair flights and products. 

“The launch of TAD is a further demonstration of our ongoing commitment to fair and transparent distribution practices as passengers will now only see true Ryanair prices and will be guaranteed that their contact details will be provided to Ryanair, so that we can contact them directly for essential information about their flight. 

"As Ryanair grows to 300 million passengers p.a. by 2034, we look forward to expanding our partnerships with trusted travel agencies across Europe.”