RyanAir reports record travel despite feud with online travel agencies
Jan. 3 (UPI) -- A little over a month after some online booking sites removed RyanAir flights from their listings, the European airline recorded a jump in traffic.
RyanAir, a discount carrier based in Dublin, said 12.54 million passengers booked flights December 2023, a jump of 9% from December 2022, in which 11.52 travelers booked with the airline.
In total, RyanAir carried over 181 million passengers in 2023, compared to 160 million in 2022.
The airline operated 72,500 flights in December, with 900 canceled because of the the ongoing war in between Israel and Hamas.
According to a RyanAir new release, online travel agencies like Booking.com, Kiwi and Kayak removed Ryanair's flights from sale on their websites in early December.
RyanAir called the move "welcome" and alleged the actions could be the result of pressure from consumer protection agencies or a response to the recent Irish High Court ruling about screenscraper Flightbox that halted unauthorized scraping of the airline's data.
The company said the sudden removal of RyanAir flights from these online travel websites could reduce short term load factors by 1% or 2% over the next two months.
It noted the move could "soften short-term yields" as the airline begins to lower fares where necessary to encourage all passengers to book directly on Ryanair.com.
Starting in summer 2023, RyanAir started warning customers of "pirate scams and overcharges, saying that online travel agents like Kiwi.com, Lastminute.com, Opodo.com and eDreams.com were hitting customers with unjustified fees and charges.
