PayPal and budget airline Ryanair are cooking up a collaboration, it seems, that will make it easier for customers to buy plane tickets online and via mobile.
Details are scant but a fair assumption would be the development of a joint app that will make it super easy to find and pay for flights on the low-cost airline. This is just one of several moves by Ryanair to detox their brand reputation. Other steps include allocated seating, improved customer support, new routes and specific family and business friendly flights. Since the plans were flagged last year, Ryanair’s share price has risen 35% and is now at an all time high.
The relationship would a appear to be a close one with PayPal Ireland boss Louise Phelan having already taken a seat on the Ryanair board. Taking that appointment required the approval of eBay CEO and president John Donahoe.
Phelan says of the collaboration: “Paypal is constantly looking at opportunities to improve and innovate and certainly as part of the Ryanair board it’s great to be able to talk about what innovative things we are doing, but also to support the growth of Ryanair and look at innovation and new ways to do things.”
Anyone who has had experience booking flights using any one of the budget airline’s websites will know that they are clunky, difficult to navigate and it’s not always easy to find the best fares. It wouldn’t take much savoir faire from a proper web company to significantly improve that experience.
3 Responses
I just love that phrase ‘Detox their brand reputation’. Of course the best way of doing that is simply to address all the issues that ‘toxed’ their reputation in the first place….
If Ryanair offer Paypal without charging their usual surcharges this will be a major step forward for customers (effectively bringing credit card surcharges to the end).
Doing so would be a major improvement to Ryanair (which I thought would only occur after the departure of MOL).