“It’s a bizarre kind of dance that they’ve been playing out over more than a decade.”
“At its heart, you’ve got a straightforward commercial dispute in which there’s a disagreement about the value that the OTAs play in the supply chain.”
Martin Alcock, Travel Trade Consultancy
In December, Ryanair flights disappeared from several online travel agents’ (OTAs) websites following a long-running battle where Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary repeatedly accused OTAs of overcharging customers.
Martin Alcock spoke to The Telegraph recently to discuss the clash, which looks like it finally may be coming to a close.
Martin explained that ‘OTAs have long been trying to stay one step ahead,’ and ‘every time Ryanair would throw up a roadblock and prevent their screen-scraping technology, they would have to find a workaround – everything from virtual credit cards, single-use cards, technology to try to throw off the scent, all of those things.”
He also highlighted the benefits of using a third party:
“OTAs provide all of the wraparound kind of financial protection that comes with things like the package travel regulations, and the ATOL scheme.”
“They will argue that there’s a huge amount of value, they do provide a huge amount of security and the ability to access refunds that they take on as an obligation.”
You can read the full article on the telegraph.co.uk website.
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