MILAN COURT IN 2024 ALREADY DECLARED RYANAIR’S DIRECT DISTRIBUTION “UNDOUBTEDLY BENEFITS CONSUMERS”.

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Tues, 23 Dec) instructed its lawyers to immediately appeal both the bizarre/unsound ruling and the €256m fine, unjustly levied by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), which seeks to ignore – and overturn – the Jan 2024 Precedent Ruling of the Milan Court, which declared that Ryanair’s direct distribution model “undoubtedly benefits consumers” and leads to “competitive fares”. Today’s Ruling validates Ryanair’s current distribution agreements, which guarantee price transparency for consumers, and safeguards the continuing availability of the lowest promotional fares on ryanair.com. The AGCM’s baseless efforts to redefine a period of time after the Milan Court Ruling, and to wrongly claim that Ryanair has a dominant position in air services to/from Italy will be overturned. This Ruling and fine are legally unsound, and will be overturned on appeal.

Ryanair has campaigned for many years to offer consumers the lowest fares by booking directly on the ryanair.com website. This direct distribution model was ruled to “undoubtedly benefits consumers” by the Milan Court, as recently as Jan 2024. However, under pressure from a Spanish OTA (which has repeatedly overcharged unsuspecting consumers), and a tiny number of bricks and mortar travel agents in Italy, the AGCM has today issued a Ruling (and this absurd fine), which flies in the face of the Jan 2024 Milan Court Ruling.

In order to invent this legally unsound Ruling, the AGCM has ignored the fact of Ryanair’s non-dominant (just over 30%) share of the Italian market, by gerrymandering to exclude both long haul air travel, and short haul air access to a number of other countries, so that it could invent this claim that Ryanair holds a dominant position in the Italian air travel market. It also seeks to exclude competing rail, bus, ferry and motorway travel from the market definition, in what is clearly an invented, but untenable market definition.

The AGCM Ruling appears to accept that Ryanair’s current approved OTA and Travel Agent Direct agreements, which allow all OTAs and bricks and mortar travel agents “cost free” unfettered access to Ryanair’s airfares (with the sole exception of Ryanair’s promotional fares) as long as they agree not to overcharge consumers when selling Ryanair’s fares and ancillary services, comply with competition law. Nevertheless, this contorted ruling and its absurd fine flies in the face of the Milan Court decision of Jan 2024, and can only be the product of a biased and unsound analysis of Ryanair’s pro-consumer pricing in every market in Italy in which Ryanair operates.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

“If today’s legally unsound AGCM Ruling and fine is not appealed, then the AGCM proposes to set itself above the Milan Courts in making competition decisions. Ryanair has fought for many years for transparent pricing, and our approved OTA agreements (which have been agreed by almost every large OTA, with the notable exception of one Spanish OTA, who continues to overcharge its customers for flights and ancillary services) are manifestly and clearly pro-consumer.

When Ryanair first started in 1985, 20% of ticket revenues were wasted paying travel agents 10% commissions, and GDS systems 10% commissions, in an industry with high fares, but profit margins of less than 1%. The internet and the ryanair.com website have enabled Ryanair to distribute directly to consumers, and Ryanair has passed on these 20% cost savings in the form of the lowest air fares in Italy and Europe. Today’s AGCM ruling is both legally unsound, and it contradicts the Precedent Milan Court Ruling of January 2024, which declared that Ryanair’s direct distribution model “undoubtedly benefits consumers”.

This AGCM Ruling is an affront to the Precedent Milan Court Ruling, and also an affront to consumer protection and competition law. Ryanair has grown rapidly in Italy – and in many other markets across Europe – by always offering the lowest air fares in every single market in which we operate. This legally baseless AGCM Ruling, and its absurd €256m fine, undermines consumer protection and competition law, and it will be overturned on appeal.

The AGCM should have followed the Jan 2024 Precedent Ruling of the Milan Court, which ruled that Ryanair’s direct distribution model

• “undoubtedly benefit[s] consumers” by leading to lower fares
• is “economically justified in terms of containing operating costs, and eliminating the costs associated with  intermediation in ticket sales”
• “contribute[s] to…a direct channel of communication…for any possible need for information and updates on flights”.

Ryanair looks forward to successfully overturning this legally flawed ruling and its absurd €256m fine in the Courts. Today’s Ruling shows that the AGCM cannot be trusted to protect consumers, or uphold competition law, when it can be so easily misled by a tiny number of self-serving bricks & mortar travel agents and a Spanish OTA, making false claims. It is these OTAs and travel agents that the AGCM should be protecting consumers from. Today’s AGCM Ruling cannot ignore, and must respect the Precedent Jan 2024 Ruling of the Milan Court, and the pro-consumer behaviour of Ryanair in every market in Italy in which we operate. Both we and our lawyers, are confident that this flawed, gerrymandered AGCM ruling and its absurd €256m fine will be overturned on appeal.”

ENDS

Note to Editors

Please find below background Note to Editors, summarizing Ryanair’s distribution model and the Jan 2024 Milan Court Ruling.

1.  When Ryanair first opened its Ryanair.com website in 1999, it guaranteed consumers that its lowest fares would only be available on its website because the internet allowed Ryanair to save costs of GDS distribution and travel agency commissions (approx. 20% of each fare), which Ryanair then passed back to customers in lower fares when they booked direct on its website.

2.  Online travel agents (OTAs) and price comparison websites emerged in the early 2000s, Ryanair offered all such agents a price comparison licence agreement which would give them access to the Ryanair.com website as long as they agreed to present real Ryanair prices.

3.  As the internet developed, the OTAs developed new techniques to “scrape” content from Ryanair.com (despite the fact that this unauthorised scraping was in breach of Ryanair’s Ts&Cs), resell Ryanair tickets and overcharge consumers. Since the 2000s, Ryanair introduced a series of security measures to prevent OTAs from overcharging Ryanair customers. However, none of these measures were successful in the long term as OTAs switched to using “burner IP addresses”, virtual credit cards and more recently PayPal in China to circumvent payment security rules, and started using fake email addresses, which prevented Ryanair from communicating directly with the customer to give them flight updates, or in some cases (during Covid) refunds.

4.  While this cat and mouse game was played out between Ryanair and these overcharging OTAs, unsuspecting customers were often charged hidden handling fees. In other examples, the OTAs overcharged consumers for Ryanair ancillary services such as bag fees, priority boarding and seat selection.  To this day Ryanair publishes a monthly survey of this overcharging by OTAs proving real consumer harm.

5.  All of these issues were considered in detail by the Milan Court of Appeal (in combined cases taken by Lastminute and Viaggiare) – see summary of judgment below.

6.  Since January 2024 Ryanair has entered into numerous “approved OTA agreements” under which Ryanair gives direct access to its website to OTAs who agree not to screenscrape Ryanair.com and to present true Ryanair prices for fares and ancillary services to consumers, with no hidden add-ons. The OTAs and agents are free to charge the customer a transparent agency fee if they so wish or to offer discounts. The same access to Ryanair’s fares inventory is available to traditional travel agents under Ryanair’s Travel Agent Direct platform and through traditional Global Distribution Systems.

On 17 Jan 2024, the Milan Court of Appeal ruled as follows in Lastminute/Viaggiare vs. Ryanair:

1.  Ryanair’s decision to reserve the sale of its air services to itself does not constitute abuse of a dominant position.

2.  The Court holds that there is no abuse of a dominant position by Ryanair on the downstream market of travel and tourism services having reserved for itself the direct sale of its airline tickets.

3.  It has been shown that Ryanair’s choice of reserving for itself the sale of its airline tickets, does not deprive, nor has it deprived, the OTA of access to a resource considered essential to carry out the OTA’s business.

4.  Ryanair sells “only” its airline tickets, and does not sell tickets of other carriers. OTAs on the other hand broker the sale of airline tickets from all airlines and other modes of transport (railways, buses, ferries, cruise ships, etc.).

5.  It is undisputed among the parties that through the payment of a token price licence, the OTAs can access and compare Ryanair’s price and flight schedules. Thus, there is no evidence of “refusal” to provide such information.

6.  As for the risk of eliminating competition, the Court notes that taking into account the different scope in which OTAs and Ryanair operate, predominantly in the downstream market (for the sale of non-aviation services), the likely occurrence of such an event should be ruled out.

7.  The OTA has asserted that the sale of airline tickets is the main driver of OTAs’ revenues. This assertion is incorrect when referring to OTAs in general, for which the booking of hotels and other accommodation appear significantly more important than the sale of airline tickets and are considered to be the real driver of their business.

8.  Ryanair’s entrepreneurial choice to sell its airline tickets directly is “economically justified” in terms of reasonableness, in terms of containing operating costs, and eliminating the costs associated with distribution in ticket sales. This has contributed to the application of competitive fares, which undoubtedly benefits consumers, and to the possibility of having direct channels of communication with them for any possible need for information and updates on flights.  No harm to users therefore was established by the investigation conducted.

THROUGH EXCLUSIVE ESN PARTNERSHIP DISCOUNTED RYANAIR FLIGHTS FOR STUDENTS TRAVELLING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (22 Dec) announced that it has now carried over 1 million Erasmus students across its industry-leading network of 235+ destinations as part of its exclusive partnership the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) – a significant milestone demonstrating the vital role this partnership plays in supporting Erasmus student mobility during their educational exchange.

Thousands of students across Europe are set to travel home this Christmas. Through this exclusive partnership, registered ESN students can avail of a 10% discount on four one-way flights (or 2 round-trips) and a free 20kg checked-in bag with every flight booked, ensuring they can spend the festive season with family and friends even on a student budget.

Ryanair’s Director of Comms, Jade Kirwan said:

“We’re pleased to see that over 1 million Erasmus students have benefited from our exclusive partnership with Erasmus Student Network (ESN), which supports low-fare mobility for Erasmus students across Europe for their educational exchanges. With thousands of students expected to travel home this Christmas to spend the festive season with family and friends, registered ESN students can now book discounted Ryanair flights across our industry-leading network of over 235 destinations through the dedicated Erasmus student platform at Ryanair.com.”

Rui Vinha, ESN Treasurer said:

“Reaching one million bookings demonstrates the significant impact of the partnership with Ryanair on the international student community and its ongoing importance during their mobility period. Whether students are travelling to their new home, going back, or taking the chance to discover new places, for nine years, the joint efforts of ESN and Ryanair have continued to positively impact students’ lives, which is our ultimate goal.”

2 BASED AIRCRAFT, US$200M INVESTMENT AND 20 ROUTES (7 NEW)

Ryanair, Morocco’s No.1 airline, today (Dec 17)announced the opening of its new 2-aircraft base (US$200m invest) in Rabat from April ’26, with 20 exciting routes (incl. 7 new routes connecting Rabat to major European destinations) for Summer ‘26. Rabat will become Ryanair’s fifth Moroccan base – further enhancing low-fare connectivity across the Kingdom in advance of its co-hosting of the 2030 World Cup. Ryanair’s investment in Rabat will also create over 800 local jobs, including 60 highly paid jobs for pilots and cabin crew.

Ryanair’s new Rabat base from Summer ’26 will deliver:

• 7 new intl routes (Milan Bergamo, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt Hahn, Nuremberg, Porto, Pisa and Valencia)
• 20 routes total
• 2 new based aircaft (US$200m investment)
• Supporting over 800 local jobs (incl. 60 highly paid pilots and cabin crew jobs)

This base opening will increase Rabat S26 capacity by +45% and is an important part of Ryanair’s record Summer 2026 schedule across 13 Moroccan airports, delivering over 10.7m passengers to, from, and now within the Kingdom.

Ryanair’s investment in Morocco now exceeds over US$1.6bn in aircraft – supporting over 8,500 direct and indirect jobsand delivering economic growth across 13 cities including Rabat, Marrakesh, Fez, Agadir, Tetouan, Essaouira, Dakhla and Nador.

Ryanair’s CEO, Eddie Wilson said:

“We are delighted to officially launch our new base at Rabat, which represents a US$200 million investment and our fifth Moroccan base. This latest base opening is part of our record S26 schedule which will see Ryanair operate over 20 routes incl. 7 new international routes to/from the Kingdom, boosting tourism and connectivity.

Our latest base opening takes Ryanair’s total investment in Morocco to over US$1.6bn, supporting over 8,500 direct and indirect jobs and delivering growth in the local tourism economy. We look forward to continuing to support Morocco’s economy as well as international connectivity, by positioning Rabat as a leading Summer destination with its rich history, vibrant culture, stunning coastline, and welcoming atmosphere.

Ryanair wishes to renew our sincere thanks to His Excellency Mr. Aziz Akhannouch, Head of Government of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, his Ministers of Transport and Tourism, Mr. Abdessamad Kayouh and Ms. Fatim-Zahra Ammor, as well as Mr. Achraf Fayda CEO of the Moroccan National Tourist Office for their vision and trust in securing this record investment for Morocco. Together we will continue to develop Morocco’s infrastructure, connectivity and tourism in advance of the Kingdom’s co-hosting of the 2030 World Cup, all of which will be underpinned and stimulated by Ryanair’s legendary low fares and industry leading punctuality”.

To mark the base opening, we are launching an unmissable seat sale, with prices from 319 MAD for travel until 31^st of May, available to book now via the Ryanair App.”

-1M SEATS, -5 AIRCRAFT, -20 ROUTES & THOUSANDS OF JOBS AT RISK

Ryanair, Europe’s No. 1 airline, today (Tues, 9 Dec) announced it will cut -1m seats (-22%), 5 based aircraft (loss of US$500m investment), and 20 routes from its Brussels Winter 26/27 schedule as a result of the Belgian Govt’s backward decision to double its harmful aviation tax to €10 per departing passenger from 2027, and the Charleroi city council’s proposal to introduce a  €3 per departing passenger tax from next year on passengers travelling from the airport. This significant increase to access costs – which was already hiked up +150% in July (just 5 months ago) – makes Belgium completely uncompetitive compared to other EU markets like Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia, where Govts are abolishing aviation taxes to drive traffic, tourism, and jobs. Even Germany has now recognised that aviation taxes don’t work and has revised its decision to increase aviation taxes.

If the Govt really wants to revive Belgium’s economy, they should abolish this harmful aviation tax to generate more traffic and tourism, not double it. Ryanair calls again on Prime Minister De Wever and his Govt to abolish the aviation tax or Belgian traffic will collapse and fares will soar, just as they have done in Austria & Germany, where Govt’s repeatedly increased access costs. Ryanair has today (Tues, 9 Dec) written to Prime Minister De Wever, Transport Minister Crucke, Wallonia Minister of Airports, Cécile Neven, and the Mayor of Charleroi, Thomas Dermine, to call for the reversal of these increases.

Ryanair’s Jason McGuinness said:

“The De Wever Govt has bizarrely decided to further increase Belgium’s already sky-high aviation tax by another +100% from Jan 2027, on top of the +150% in July last. These repeated increases to this harmful aviation tax make Belgium completely uncompetitive compared to the many other EU countries, like Sweden, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia, where Govts are abolishing aviation taxes to drive traffic, tourism, and jobs. As a result of this second tax hike in just 5 months, Ryanair has been forced to cut -22% of its Brussels traffic (-1m seats), -5 aircraft from our Charleroi base (loss of US$500m investment), and 20 routes (13 from Charleroi & 7 from Zaventem) for Winter 26/27. Should the Charleroi city council proceed with its ill-judged proposal to introduce further taxes on passengers departing from Charleroi next year, these cuts will deepen as Ryanair will be forced to reduce flights, routes and based aircraft at Charleroi from as early as April 2026 with thousands of local jobs at risk.

If Prime Minister De Wever and his Govt really wanted to revive Belgium’s economy, they should abolish this harmful aviation tax, not double it. Despite so many other EU countries taking this step to support their economies, Belgium is going in the opposite direction, driving up access costs and pushing airlines and tourism elsewhere. We urge Prime Minister De Wever to scrap this damaging aviation tax before Belgian’s traffic, tourism, jobs, and the wider economy collapse any further. Furthermore, the Charleroi city council needs to abandon its lunatic plans to increase taxes driving job losses with the effect of lowering payroll, VAT and corporate tax receipts for the local economy.”

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, today (Tues, 9 Dec) released its December OTA Survey, showing some OTAs like eDreams, Fru, and Tryp overcharging consumers almost 50% over Ryanair’s prices. These OTAs, do not have distribution agreements with Ryanair, because they wish to continue overcharging consumers. eDreams & Fru are this month’s worst offenders, with eDreams selling a reserved seat that costs just €10 on Ryanair.com for €14.86 – 48% more than Ryanair’s price, and Fru selling Priority boarding for 109.69zł over 48% more than the cost of just 74.00zł on Ryanair.com.

Ryanair continues to campaign to protect EU consumers form OTA overcharging and calls again on EU Govts (notably Spain’s useless Consumer Minister Bustinduy) and National Consumer Authorities to take urgent action to protect consumers from these overcharging OTAs. They should and insist on mandatory price transparency from all OTAs which is in line with the transparent pricing being delivered by all Ryanair’s “Approved OTA” partners, to protect consumers.

Ryanair’s Dara Brady said:

“Ryanair’s December OTA survey shows that eDreams, Fru, and Tryp continue to overcharge unsuspecting consumers almost 50% over the prices on Ryanair’s website. Most notably, Spain’s useless Consumer Minister Bustinduy, continues to do nothing to protect thousands of Spanish consumers from this eDreams overcharging.

Ryanair again calls on EU Govt and Consumer Protection Authorities to take urgent action to protect consumers across Europe by insisting on OTA price transparency standards in line with the transparency standards applied by all of Ryanair’s approved OTA partners.”

US$600M INVESTMENT, 15% GROWTH, 3 NEW ROUTES

Ryanair, the UK’s No.1 low fares airline, today (Thurs, 4 Dec) announced a sixth based aircraft at Liverpool John Lennon Airport for Summer 2026, representing a US$600m investment from Ryanair in the Northwest. This additional aircraft will deliver +250,000 additional seats (+15% growth), 3 exciting new routes to Marrakesh, Tirana, and Warsaw, and extra flights on 11 popular existing routes to Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Ibiza, Kaunas, Kraków, Malaga, Malta, Porto, Reus, and Sofia. Ryanair’s record Summer 2026 schedule offers customers in Liverpool and the Northwest even more choice at Europe’s lowest fares whilst also supporting over 2,000 local jobs.

Ryanair’s Liverpool Summer 2026 schedule will deliver:

• 34 routes, incl. 3 new routes to Marrakesh, Tirana, & Warsaw
• 6 based aircraft (+1 vs. S25 – US$600m investment in Liverpool)
• Increased freq. on 11 routes
• 2m seats incl. +250,000 (+15%) additional seats
• Liverpool traffic grows to over 2.4m passengers p.a.

To celebrate Ryanair’s sixth aircraft and 3 new routes at Liverpool in Summer 2026, the airline has launched a limited time seat sale with fares from £29.99 available only at Ryanair.com.

Ryanair’s CCO, Jason McGuinness said:

“We are delighted to be in Liverpool today to celebrate more Ryanair investment and record growth for the Northwest, with the announcement of a sixth Ryanair aircraft at Liverpool for Summer 2026 as well as 3 new routes to Marrakesh, Tirana, and Warsaw. Ryanair will also add extra flights on existing popular sun and city break routes, like Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Ibiza & Kraków, driving 2026 traffic above 2.4m passengers p.a.

Ryanair’s supercharged investment and growth at Liverpool (US$600m) will deliver more than 2m low-fare seats to 34 European destinations, offering customers in the Northwest more choice at the lowest fares in Europe, while simultaneously driving inbound tourism. While Ryanair is growing at Liverpool next Summer, other regional airports across the UK are being hamstrung by Rachel Reeves idiotic decision to increase APD. If the UK Govt is serious about delivering growth, they should abolish this penal and damaging APD tax, which makes the UK (particularly regional airports) uncompetitive compared to EU countries like Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia, and regional Italy, which are abolishing aviation taxes and lowering access costs to stimulate traffic, tourism, and jobs growth.

To celebrate Ryanair’s new aircraft and 3 new routes at Liverpool this Summer, we’ve launched a limited time seat sale with fares from £29.99 available only at Ryanair.com.”

Liverpool John Lennon Airport’s CEO, John Irving said:

“As our longest serving airline partner of nearly 40 years with around 40 million of their passengers having chosen to travel via Liverpool in that time, firstly I’d like to thank Ryanair for their continued support and for this latest commitment. This news highlights Liverpool John Lennon Airport’s strategic importance for the City Region and wider Northwest and North Wales and will bring more jobs, more investment and more choice for the region’s travellers as well as for those from overseas visiting the region via the airport too.

As 2025 draws to a close, on what has been one of Liverpool Airport’s busiest years ever, Ryanair’s decision to base a 6th aircraft at Liverpool in 2026 with an additional 250,000 seats on sale, is likely to help the airport go on to break all previous passenger records.”

Ryanair, Europe and Poland’s No.1 airline, today (Wed, 3 Dec) announced it will base a sixth aircraft in Gdańsk for Summer 2026, representing a US$600m investment from Ryanair in Pomerania. This additional aircraft will deliver +300,000 additional seats (+16% growth), 5 exciting new routes to Rome, Dubrovnik, Tirana, Palermo and Bucharest and extra flights on 17 existing popular routes to Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga and Malta. Ryanair’s record Gdańsk Summer 2026 schedule will deliver 2.3m seats across 43 routes, offering customers in the Pomeranian Voivodeship even more choice at Europe’s lowest fares.

Ryanair’s Gdańsk S26 schedule will deliver:

• A record 43 routes, incl. 5 new routes to Bucharest, Dubrovnik, Palermo, Rome & Tirana
• 6 based aircraft (+1 vs. S25 – US$600m investment)
• Increased freq. on 17 routes – incl. Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga and Malta
• 2.3m seats incl. 300,000 (+16%) additional seats
• Gdańsk traffic grows to over 3.3m seats p.a.

To celebrate Ryanair’s sixth aircraft and 5 new routes in Gdańsk next Summer, Ryanair launched a limited-time seat sale with fares available from PLN 120, only at www.ryanair.com.

Ryanair’s Chief Commercial Officer, Jason McGuinness, said:

“We are delighted to celebrate the news that Ryanair will base a sixth aircraft in Gdańsk for Summer 2026 alongside the announcement of 5 new routes to Bucharest, Dubrovnik, Palermo, Rome & Tirana, in addition to extra flights to 17 popular sun and city destinations such as Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga and Malta. Next Summer, Ryanair’s US$600m investment in the Pomeranian Voivodeship will deliver more than 2.3m low-fare seats from Gdańsk to a record 43 European destinations.

Ryanair’s 6 based aircraft and US$600m investment in Gdańsk is a clear commitment to growing Poland’s regional connectivity. Next Summer, Gdańsk will benefit from +300,000 (+16%) additional seats and 5 new routes with Europe and Poland’s biggest airline, driving inbound tourism to Pomerania and supporting year-round international connectivity at Europe’s lowest fares.

To celebrate Ryanair’s biggest ever schedule and 5 new routes at Gdańsk next Summer, we’ve launched a 2-day seat sale with fares from just PLN 120 available only at Ryanair.com.”

Tomasz Kloskowski, CEO of Gdańsk Airport, added:

“Ryanair’s decision to grow its Gdańsk base with a 6th aircraft and launch exciting new routes for Spring 2026 is a direct result of our long-standing, excellent cooperation and a clear signal of our airport’s rising importance in the region and across Poland. We are delighted that this investment will give passengers from Pomerania even greater choice, while allowing us – together with our partner Ryanair – to continue expanding our route network and strengthen our position as one of Poland’s fastest-growing airports.”