Long-stay tourists who needed to fly from Gran Canaria to the rest of Europe will have to spend more time looking for offers. The largest tour operator with interests in the Canary Islands, TUI, and Ryanair are going to establish an alliance. In the hotel sector, those who sell hotel beds are going to have margins narrow. The alliance will allow customers to book with Ryanair alongside TUI flights, as the tour operator also has similar agreements with EasyJet and WizzAir. The low-cost airline has also agreed new conditions with online travel agencies Kiwi and Loveholidays. Dara Brady, director of Ryanair, said the deal “separates TUI from the OTA [online travel agent] pirates who continue to mislead and defraud customers.” A TUI spokesperson told Maspalomas24H that he planned to increase his own list of flights from the UK this summer to Gran Canaria.
In 2016 Ryanair said it had launched a package holiday service taking on TUI offering for the first time combined flights with accommodation and transfers from the UK and Germany, the two largest package travel markets for southern Gran Canaria, with the support from the Spanish tour operator Logitravel and the accommodation provider World2Meet. Ryanair planned to undercut its rivals by waiving the type of commissions charged by some package travel companies
Ryanair has agreed a deal to supply TUI in an escalation of the low-cost airline's dispute with online ticketing “pirates”. The Irish airline announced on Thursday that it had authorized Tui to sell its flights as part of its package holidays, although only on the condition that it does not increase any of its prices. It represents Ryanair's third partnership since its flights were pulled from multiple online booking sites amid a long-running dispute over alleged hidden charges.
In a statement, David Schelp, CEO of Tui Airlines, said: “The agreement we have reached will create more travel options than ever for our guests. In the UK in particular, our guests will be able to choose from an even wider range of flights in the future.” The backdrop to the deal is Ryanair's dispute with online travel agencies such as Booking.com and its subsidiaries. The airline has accused travel agents of "screen scraping" their prices before adding their own markups and of offering poor customer service. Booking.com rejected the accusations and countersued Ryanair for defamation and unfair competition. Ryanair has also asked the Civil Aviation Authority and the UK's competition watchdog to investigate online travel sites. In January, Ryanair was forced to cut its profit forecast after its flights were removed from OTAs. Ryanair said the impact would be short-term. There you have it.
