For years, Ryanair and Kiwi.com have fought various disputes in court. It was a thorn in the side of the low-coster that the OTA brokered tickets without a distribution contract. Now the disputers have surprisingly announced the conclusion of a sales partnership.

Ryanair and Kiwi.com repeatedly dragged each other to court, with different outcomes. In some cases, the discrepancies were also carried out at the expense of the passengers, as the low-cost airline sometimes even refused to take travelers without OTA verification. Passengers who were found at the gate with boarding cards with the Kiwi.com logo were temporarily not allowed to board them at all.

Ryanair and Kiwi.com have now announced an official distribution partnership. According to the announcement, the airline provides direct access to the reservation system, so that screen scraping is no longer necessary. According to Ryanair, Kiwi.com has committed itself not to charge any surcharges for flights or additional services and to provide the airline with customer and payment data. In addition to these benefits, customers can also take advantage of Kiwi's virtual interline service, which allows them to book connecting flights. Should they miss their connecting flight, Kiwi will rebook passengers onto the next available flight free of charge.

“We are pleased to announce this new permitted OTA agreement with Kiwi.com. This is great news for Kiwi customers who will now be able to book Ryanair's cheap flights, seats and luggage through Kiwi.com with full price transparency, safe in the knowledge that they will receive and complete all important flight information directly from Ryanair You will have access to your booking via your myRyanair account. Ryanair has long been committed to ensuring that all consumers are protected from overpricing and fraud by OTA pirates and that fake customer contact and payment information is not provided to airlines. This new partnership with Kiwi is an important step in achieving this protection for all Kiwi customers, who will now have access to Ryanair's low fares and additional services without excessive fees, enabling Kiwi to offer the best prices from Ryanair to all customers “To offer Ryanair,” said Dara Brady from Ryanair.

For Kiwi.com, Chief Commercial Officer Golan Shaked explains: “Today’s announcement of the collaboration with Ryanair is positive and ends a period of friction that has impacted our customers. It reflects our commitment to building relationships with all airlines for the benefit of customers and our long-term business objectives.”