A Spanish court rules in favour of Ryanair amid OTA battle

The Dublin-based airline, Ryanair, has welcomed a court ruling in their favour against an online travel agency.

Ryanair have long been in a battle against online travel agency, having recently urged customers to only book through them and on their official website to avoid any hidden fees or potential mix-ups when it comes to their bookings.

This latest battle, however, has made its way to court and Michael O’Leary will be delighted to know that his airline has come out of it swinging and looking much better compared to the online travel agency, Kiwi.

A Spanish commercial court has ruled in favour of Ryanair and ultimately rejected an injunction by the online travel agency, Kiwi, to suspend the carrier’s verification procedures for passengers whose bookings are made by OTAs.

Ryanair make statement after court ruling

The budget airline have made a comment on this situation and it came from the marketing, digital and communications chief Dara Brady who said: “Ryanair does not have a commercial relationship with Kiwi, and we strongly object to Kiwi selling our flights.”

It’s pretty clear that Ryanair are wanting customers to only book through their own website and not other online agencies that can sometimes look to offer cheaper flights and tickets, only to then hand out several other fees and charges people must fork out for.

An example of this could be such as adding on extra luggage instead of just a carry-on bag, however, Ryanair do the same and force people to pay for extra luggage if they wish to bring on board more than one bag.

Kiwi are far from pleased about this decision, having claimed that the Madrid-based commercial court failed to look at the validity of this verification process, instead only the company’s request to suspend that process until the case is heard.

Why are OTA’s angered by Ryanair?

This verification process operated by Ryanair is used for customers who book onto their flight and must provide a form of ID and sometimes also a signature to prove they are indeed the same person who is booked onto the flight.

The online travel agency Kiwi have insisted they will not let this fight die against Ryanair as they believe many other companies across Europe feel the same way they do.

“This new verification process, which is an excessive and invasive collection of personal information, followed by charging consumers fees at the airport, sometimes more than the cost of the flight itself, goes against everything we stand for,” Kiwi said in a statement.

“While it is disappointing that there will not be an immediate suspension of this so-called ‘verification’, we trust that the final decision will remove Ryanair’s new verification process and restore our customers’ position of having freedom of choice, which this unilateral action is seeking to erode”