After much hype, Ryanair, the Irish low-cost airline, revealed that its fare and availability data is now available via Google Flight Search, a metasearch tool.
It's available for users of Google Flight Search in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada, and the US.
Until now, Google’s metasearch tool hasn't gained traction in Europe partly because of the lack of inventory for low-cost airlines such as Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline. Google executive David Robles said in a statement:
“We want to give users as many flight options as possible, so introducing Ryanair, which is, to the Google Flight Search family is very exciting.”
This is much less scintillating announcement than the industry-changing proposal hinted at in a January 12 interview by Michael O'Leary, the airline's CEO.
As Tnooz previously noted:
Ryanair doesn’t normally like metasearch engines or agencies (it used CAPTCHAs to stop scrapers – or it just sued them), preferring to have customers do all their search and shopping for Ryanair fares direct on the site. But clearly a deal with Google changes its mindset somewhat.
Ryanair says it will add mobile boarding passes, an updated app, and an overhauled Ryanair.com by "early 2014".
Related:
Ryanair wants ticket distribution via agencies, talking to all three GDSs
GDSs acknowledge Ryanair renaissance over travel agency relationships