Ryanair has launched a new booking platform, in Italy, called “Travel Agent Direct” (TAD), which is a new direct and authorised distribution platform, designed to allow Italian physical travel agencies to book Ryanair flights directly, ensuring full transparency for passengers.
This new booking platform represents the latest development in Ryanair’s commitment to work exclusively with reliable and licensed travel agencies, such as those affiliated with FIAVET and AIAV, to book Ryanair flights for its customers, with full transparency on prices and the guarantee that customers will receive essential flight updates directly, without having to complete Ryanair’s customer verification.
Ryanair’s Travel Agent Direct will simplify the process for traditional Italian travel agents, allowing them access to Ryanair’s extensive industry-leading network of over 3,600 daily flights to more than 230 destinations across Europe.
Dara Brady, Ryanair’s Chief Marketing Officer, said:
“We are delighted to launch our Travel Agent Direct platform, which will allow authorised Italian travel agencies, affiliated with FIAVET and AIAV, to have access to Ryanair’s low-cost flights to over 230 destinations for their customers, provided they guarantee full transparency on the prices of all Ryanair flights and products. The launch of TAD is a further demonstration of our ongoing commitment to fair and transparent distribution practices, as passengers will now only see Ryanair’s real prices and have the confidence that their contact details will be provided to Ryanair, so that they can contact them directly for essential flight information. With Ryanair growing to 300 million passengers per year by 2034, we are excited to be able to expand our partnerships with trusted travel agencies across Europe.”
The Hon. Salvatore Deidda (Fratelli d’Italia), President of the Transport Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, said:
“This is a step forward achieved after a path of dialogue between the airline Ryanair and travel agencies that demonstrates the effectiveness of the path of open and continuous discussion between the various stakeholders in the sector. In Italy, Travel Agencies are mainly made up of small and medium-sized enterprises that express great professionalism and competence every day and the recognition of their role is a positive sign. In the Commission we will continue to work to ensure that the necessary measures and actions are adopted in the aviation sector to ensure transparency on costs, more sustainable services and greater protection for users”.
The Hon. Gianluca Caramanna (Fratelli d’Italia), Group Leader X Commission for Productive Activities, Commerce and Tourism and advisor to the Minister of Tourism for institutional relations, said:
“Everything that makes citizens’ lives easier sees us in favor. For this reason, we welcome the possibility of purchasing the airline’s low-cost flights also in the agency, creating a strong synergy between the agencies themselves and the airline. We are happy with an agreement that favors consumers”.
Giuseppe Ciminnisi, President of FIAVET, said:
“It is a historic day for travel agents, which sees the launch of the TAD, an instrument that sanctions and recognizes the value and strategic role of commercial collaboration between the world of professional intermediaries and the Irish carrier, for the benefit of customers. The path that we had established through the agreement signed with Ryanair last April, also with the support of Adiconsum, is being achieved. Fiavet always sets ambitious goals and often leads the way for the future, and this day is yet another proof of this. We believe that it is one of our distinctive values to know how to dialogue with everyone, companies, the world of consumers and the country’s institutions, to weave relationships and deliver to our category the role and importance it deserves”.
Fulvio Avataneo, President of AIAV, said:
“We are proud to have actively participated in this historic result and to have obtained the extension to all travel agencies, because we believe that an initiative of such importance should concern the entire system. We have also asked for and obtained the opening of a direct discussion table with the carrier. The TAD platform marks an important step forward in the enhancement of organized tourism, in favor of greater efficiency of travel agents and an even safer and more transparent relationship with consumers, who will be protected from unfair practices and abusive operators. A collaboration model destined to lead the way throughout Europe, which represents concrete evidence of how it is possible to strengthen the relationship between agencies and airlines while respecting the roles of the supply chain“.
