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eDreams ODIGEO on Wednesday evening accused Ryanair of ‘abusive, unlawful, and anti-competitive’ practices against travel agents, after the budget airline accused it of overcharging customers. eDreams ODIGEO, a Spanish travel agency whose brands include eDreams, GO Voyages and Travellink, had earlier on Wednesday attributed its reduced financial forecasts in part to Ryanair’s ‘efforts to block travel agents’. eDreams expects to grow its Prime member base by 600,000 subscribers in financial 2026. This would result in Prime’s base expanding to 7.9 million subscribers, down from the 8.3 million by the end of March 2026 which it guided for in its annual report. The company 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. Responding to eDreams’ claims, Ryanair said eDreams continually overcharges the airline’s customers, and is the only large online travel agent to do so. ‘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,’ Ryanair said. ‘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.’ On Wednesday evening, eDreams responded to Ryanair’s statement. ‘Ryanair’s practices towards travel agents are abusive, unlawful, and anti-competitive,’ an eDreams ODIGEO spokesperson commented. ‘This is precisely why the airline is facing antitrust proceedings for market abuse. ‘Sadly, this is business as usual for this airline, consistent with a history of convictions for unfair competition and denigration and even a fine for obstructing the regulator’s investigation.’ The spokesperson concluded: ‘While [Ryanair focuses] on anti-competitive and anti-consumer tactics, we are focused on executing our new strategic roadmap to accelerate long-term growth and secure more than 13 million Prime members by 2030. That is where our energy lies.’ Ryanair’s stock rose 3.0% to €26.47 per share on Wednesday in Dublin. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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