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Ryanair Holdings PLC on Wednesday called on eDreams ODIGEO to explain itself after the Spanish travel agency accused it of ‘blocking efforts’ while lowering earnings guidance. The Dublin-based budget airline company said eDreams is the only large online travel agent which continues to overcharge Ryanair customers, in response to eDreams’ claim that the carrier is increasingly attempting to prevent it from distributing Ryanair content. eDreams was in the process of announcing reduced financial guidance for financial 2026 and 2027. The travel agent expects cash earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of €155 million for its current financial year, down from €180.4 million for the 12 months to March. In its financial 2025 report, it predicted that Ebitda would reach between €215 million and €220 million. For financial 2027, eDreams expects Ebitda to further decline to €115 million. However, it added: ‘Following this transition phase, profitability is expected to rebound strongly, with cash Ebitda projected to grow by more than 35% per annum from FY28 to FY30.’ eDreams said the lowered outlook was partly due to ‘planned strategic investment to accelerate long-term value’, but also due to ‘a conservative headwind assumption from recent instability in access to Ryanair content’. ‘Over the past two years, Ryanair has intensified its efforts to block travel agents. More recently, they have increased their blocking efforts affecting eDO, despite European High Court decisions confirming eDO’s right to distribute Ryanair content,’ eDreams said. ‘As a result of this specific volatility, the company expects to grow its Prime member base by 600,000 members in the full fiscal year 2026.’ In its annual report, eDreams reported that its Prime subscription service grew to 7.3 million members in financial 2025. The new guidance would see the base expanding to 7.9 million subscribers, down from the 8.3 million it previously expected to have by the end of March in 2026. Responding to eDreams’ claims, Ryanair stated: ‘All other major OTAs, including [Booking Holdings Inc brand] Booking.com, Lastminute and Kiwi, have signed up to the principle of price transparency and in return receive direct free of charge access to Ryanair’s ticket inventory. ‘eDreams - on the other hand - has been scraping Ryanair’s website for nearly 20 years and has built its business model on the premise they overcharge their customers.’ A Ryanair spokesperson commented: ‘Despite our repeated objections, eDreams has been scraping Ryanair’s fares and ancillary services for years, and continues to do so. ‘Instead of blaming Ryanair today for a fall in its profit guidance, eDreams should recognise that it is now the only large OTA which does not follow Ryanair’s price transparency standards...Ryanair’s offer to grant eDreams free-of-charge access to our ticket inventory remains open, as long as eDreams is willing to commit to the same principles of price transparency as its competitors have committed to over the past two years.’ Shares in Ryanair were 3.8% higher at €26.68 each on Wednesday in Dublin. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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