Internet giant, Google, is working on a plan with Ireland-based low-cost carrier, Ryanair, to completely transform how consumers search for, select and buy airline tickets.
In an interview with the Sunday Independent, Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, said that the partnership with Google would change the way people buy tickets forever.
O’Leary said: ‘There are some very exciting developments with Google, where we have been working with them on sharing the pricing.’
He added: ‘Well be sharing the Ryanair pricing through all of the Google outlets, so when you go in, there’ll be route selections, cheapest prices and so on. Google are developing a price-comparison thing themselves. They want to launch with us and we’re working with them on that kind of product.
They don’t want to have a limited or biased search. They want to be able to say they’ve screened all of these airlines on all of the routes. They need to find who has got the lowest airfare on these routes… and that’s us’
O’Leary said he expected the project to go live by the end of March.
Looking into the future, O’Leary said: ‘We’ll be doing more individual marketing, with the launch of My Ryanair. We’ll build individual profiles for each passenger. We’ll know how often you fly, where you fly, who you fly with and we’ll design individual packages for you.
‘For example, if you fly business 12 times a year, we’ll say something like, ‘If you fly 13 times, here’s a free ticket for your wife.’
O’Leary also said that Ryanair’s new website would include a slick ‘Farefinder’ feature, where customers can review graphs on each route, showing the days with the cheapest flights over the coming 60 days.
He added that Ryanair’s recent move to introduce customer service improvements was part of a strategy to capture new passengers.
