Ryanair Considers Vacation Brand, Car Services & Hotel Bookings

Ryanair could soon introduce a vacation brand, complete with car service and hotel bookings.

More changes are on the way for low-cost carrier Ryanair. In an interview with TTG Digital, Ryanair CMO Kenny Jacobs hinted at additional services coming within the next five years, including a vacation brand that will introduce car rental service and hotel bookings.

“If it becomes Ryanair Holidays at a point in time, it is a logical way for the brand to go,” Jacobs told TTG Digital. “We do a version of it already. We can certainly do it better than we do. The way customers are responding to the new improved Ryanair, I think it will go forward.”

2014 continues to be a year of change for the budget carrier, with many additions viewed as customer focused. In August, Ryanair launched a version of business class service, and in more recent times, TTG Digital reports that the Dublin-based airline is returning its airfare stock to global distribution systems, thereby opening the doors for booking through travel agents.

However, some travel agents remain skeptical of Ryanair, which was voted The Worst Brand in Customer Service out of Britain’s 100 biggest brands by Which? magazine. “Why would we want to get into bed with them now?” travel agent Steve Pattenden told TTG Digital. “They might say they want to work with agents now just to solve their problems for the next 12 months, but would they really change after 20 years? I don’t think so.”

Britain’s Marketing Magazine reports that if Ryanair were to launch a “Ryanair Holidays” brand, they would follow fellow low-cost carrier easyJet into the market. The easyJet Holidays brand offers flyers the option of combining their airfare into a complete package that includes hotels, city tours and skiing opportunities.

[Photo: Ryanair]