The CEO of popular airline Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, has recently announced that the company has teamed up with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to develop a revolutionary flight comparison technology that would help customers get the best price for their flight tickets. Google will not be biased in its results, as it will list all the airlines that have low-cost tickets and then redirect the user towards the website where he can make the purchase. As Michael O’Leary himself claims, the new price comparison engine will certainly change the way users search for and purchase tickets on the Internet – for good.
Nevertheless, even though Ryanair is very excited about this new technology that is designed to attract more customers as well as to improve the visibility of the company, developing this price comparison tool may turn out to be a very expensive deal for consumers. Besides, the CEO of the company also states that this flight comparison technology developed by Google is expected to blow its competitors out of the water. However, this does come with a price and apparently, it is not a very cheap one as Google and Ryanair share the pricing for this particular project that is expected to be mutually beneficial in the long haul.
At the same time, Michael O’Leary also added that he expects Ryanair to have the technology required for tracking personal flight data within the following years – this type of information will be used solely for marketing purposes. For instance, Ryanair will gather information such as the frequency with which the customers purchase tickets, the different destinations where the customer is headed and whether the customer travels alone or with somebody. By processing this type of information, Ryanair will be able to deliver personalized flight packages at the most convenient prices.
On the other hand, the CEO of Irish Travel Agency Association claims that giving companies access to information related to purchasing flight tickets for certain routes can make the prices sky-rocket before they even know it. He also added that even though nobody has made it clear whether Google will be the one to gather this type of sensitive data or Ryanair will do it all by itself, it is possible to record a significant increase in the price of the tickets for certain routes. It is essential to make sure that customers get the best value for their hard-worked cash without technology boosting the price of the tickets, although this is not intended at all.
