Europe’s biggest budget airline, Ryanair has launched a package holiday service Ryanair Holidays, offering hotels and apartments in addition to flights.
The Irish airline claimed it would “transform the market” as it launched the holiday package, claiming to undercut competitors by offering rooms at 330,000 hotels across Europe with the cheapest flight seats.
Earlier, rival carriers, such as easyJet, Jet2 and Monarch, have offered packages for some years.
Chief Marketing Officer Kenny Jacobs said that the airline will start by offering summer packages to customers in the United Kingdom and Germany, Europe’s two largest package holiday markets.
The airline will then start targeting other markets and offer city breaks to cities such as Prague and Berlin.
The new venture is selling a four-night trip to Lisbon in March for £76, including flights and accommodation. Next May, a trip to Mallorca is available for £142 for a week.
The firm has teamed up with a Spanish tour operator, Logitravel, and the “bed bank”, World2Meet, to arrange the holidays. Holidays will be ATOL -bonded, for which passengers will pay £2.50.
Mr Jacobs said that accommodation in Spain would be in short supply in the summer of 2017. The country saw its highest number of visitors ever this summer, as holidaymakers from the UK and Germany moved away from countries regarded as dangerous, such as Turkey and Egypt.
Ryanair declined to say how much of the European package holiday market Ryanair was targeting but said it would set out targets in six months’ time.
