GTMC: Ryanair must work with travel agents
Ryanair must work with travel agents and make its fares available on GDS systems if it is to succeed in the business travel market, said the Guild of Travel Management Companies.
Chief executive Paul Wait said the airline would also have to introduce new, direct flights to business travel destinations. "It will have to follow easyJet’s example of investing in the market," he said.
Ryanair last week announced it was planning to offer a new product targeted at business travellers. It is also to offer flexible fares, reserved seating and fast-track through airports for the first time.
"It is all very well saying you are going into the corporate market but they have to fly to business desinations, but at the moment their network is leisure," said Wait.
"You have to fly to where business travellers want to go to, they want to fly from their local airport close to home as long as they can get where they want to go to, and they want to fly direct."
Wait said it was also crucial Ryanair put its flights into the GDS systems. The airline has just added its fares to Google Flights. "If it wants to get into the corporate market it will have to start working with the trade," he added, "and it will have to invest significantly in the market in the way that easyJet has invested."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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