Ryanair Plans To Roll Out New Website And Digital Marketing Strategy - Update

(RTTNews) - Irish low cost airline Ryanair Holdings Plc (RYA.L, RYAAY) said Friday that it plans to roll out a new website and digital marketing strategy after reaching certain milestones.

The company will launch the @Ryanair Twitter page, and remove the Recaptcha security feature for individual passengers from 30 October next. The company noted that Recaptcha will remain in place for high volume bookers, screenscrapers, travel agents etc.

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said, "Our primary focus this winter will be to significantly invest in, and improve, the Ryanair.com website, our mobile platform and our interaction with passengers using social media. ….This winter will also see a rolling programme of development to improve the Ryanair.com website, make it easier for passengers to navigate, quicker for them to locate our all-inclusive price quotes, identify availability of our lower fare promotions and book Ryanair's great fares for themselves and their families."

The company added that its new digital marketing strategy will see it switch a significant proportion of its marketing budget from old to new media, with a particular focus on mobile and social media platforms.

At its Annual General Meeting in Dublin, the airline briefed shareholders that its mobile app, which was previously charged at 3 euros, will be downloadable free of charge from Tuesday, October 1.

It also briefed that booking flow redesign will go live in December. Passenger registration/retention service will be live for summer 2014, substantially reducing the time it takes to complete bookings.

Ryanair said it recently achieved milestones, including first EU airline to carry 9 million passengers in a calendar month of August, and first EU airline to carry 80 million passengers per annum.

The company noted that its operations set new record highs in the month of August. According to the company, 94% of flights were on-time, there were less than 1 bag per 3,000 passengers misplaced and less than 1 cancellation for every 10,000 flights operated.

The company said its traffic is set to grow to 110 million passengers by fiscal 2019.

O'Leary said, "Our recent agreements with Boeing, Warsaw Modlin and London Stansted show that Ryanair continues to widen our substantial unit cost advantage over all other EU airlines. We will use these lower costs to offer even lower fares to Ryanair passengers across all EU markets in which we operate, and already these fares (starting from €15 one way) are delivering increased bookings and higher advance loads, albeit at lower yields this autumn."

Ryanair shares are currently trading at 6.29 pence, down 0.06 pence or 0.93 percent.