Ryanair has signed a distribution deal with travel tech company Kyte
that will provide its corporate travel partners with access to the
low-cost airline's content. The partnership will go live in Q1 this year with an exact date to be confirmed, said Ryanair.
Kyte, which works with airlines to provide their content to travel sellers
via API connections, said the partnership "effectively supports
Ryanair's content and functionality" within retailers own web, mobile
and alternative portals "for a seamless corporate customer service."
The distributor's deal has "GDS parity", according to Kyte, meaning the distributor will support full content, ancillaries and bundles but, like Ryanair's GDS agreements, will not provide access to the carrier's three lowest fare classes.
The
airline said the partnership gives Ryanair "streamlined access to the
travel ecosystem, including a vast array of corporate travel partners,
without the need for legacy GDSs."
Ryanair has signed a number of
agreements with OTAs in the leisure travel space in recent weeks and
announced a direct connect deal – yet to go live – with online booking
provider Concur in December.
Travel management companies have
struggled to provide and service Ryanair content to their customers in
recent months since specialist content aggregators turned off access to
it. The airline has clamped down on what it calls "OTA pirates" operating primarily in the leisure sector which
'scrape' the airline's content and sell it with additional charges.
Alice Ferrari, Kyte CEO and co-founder, said: “As the airline industry transitions to API distribution,
this announcement demonstrates Ryanair’s progressive mindset around
supporting new technologies. I’m extremely proud that Ryanair has chosen
Kyte as their first official non-GDS distribution partner.”
Ferrari added: “This partnership demonstrates our commitment to helping
airlines like Ryanair broaden their reach and open new and relevant
revenue streams, on their terms.”
Ryanair content will also be
made available on Kyte's partner desktop solutions including AirGateway.
Last summer, AirGateway partnered with Kyte to provide easyJet's "full
range" of fares, bundles, ancillaries and services to its customers.