Ryanair to get new website, promises more personalization

Ryanair is partnering with Boxever to help develop the "digital experience" for its passengers.

The move is part of the airline’s customer strategy for 2019, which aims to deliver a more personalized service on its digital channels.

Part of the strategy is a new website, to be launched in the coming weeks, which will offer a more retail-like experience.

Ryanair chief technology officer John Hurley says the “vision is to have market segmentation.”

The new website will offer visitors a “people like you...” experience to recommend destinations, hotels and ground transport products.

Fellow Ireland-based Boxever, which offers personalization technology to airlines, will draw on data from the website, mobile application, MyRyanair and emails, to enhance the carrier’s existing data science capabilities.

The partnership is a five-year contract and Hurley says the implementation will follow a “start simple and learn” process.

Boxever CEO Dave O’Flanagan says the company will apply its rules, machine learning and artificial intelligence technology to define what the customer wants and then put “the right offer in front of the right customer.”

He adds that the end result will be less noise for customers leading to increased conversion and “ultimately to increasing the order value.”

O’Flanagan believes Ryanair‘s strategy is beyond anything being done currently within the airline industry when it comes to personalization.

Boxever raised $12 million in Series B funding just over three years ago to fuel its global expansion strategy.

The company counts a number of major airlines, including Emirates, Air New Zealand and Aer Lingus, amongst its customers.