Budget UK airline, Ryanair, cuts profit forecast after online travel agent row

Ryanair Holdings Plc released their quarterly accounts yesterday (29/01), reporting a decrease in profits compared with the same period a year prior.

This financial report covers the final 3 months of 2023, where the company has reported profits of €15m. In the same accounting period of 2022, they reported a profit of €211m.

This figure is much lower, despite a 7% rise in passenger numbers and a 13% hike in fare prices.

Ryanair Holdings have blamed this decrease on the decision by 3rd party booking sites, such as booking.com, to remove Ryanair from their site.

Online travel agents (OTA's) removed Ryanair from their service, after Ryanair publicly supported an Irish High Court case, ruling that screen scraping by OTA's is illegal.

Ryanair Holdings' share price fell 3% as they have cut their profit forecast from €2.05bn to €1.95bn, for the year to the end of March.

Is this just the beginning of a larger downfall? Should Ryanair be grateful of OTA's, instead of publicly disgracing them? Let us know what you think in the comments.