The dispute between Ryanair and the Czech ticket retailer Kiwi.com has taken on a new dimension: passengers with boarding passes issued through Kiwi's automatic check-in service will no longer be accepted. The passengers are denied boarding.

So-called OTAs are a thorn in the side of the Irish lowcosters. Most providers add heavily to the ticket price and especially to extra services such as priority boarding or checked baggage. This is exactly what Kiwi.com does, and in some cases quite generously, because around ten euros more than directly at Ryanair are not uncommon. The low-cost airline believes that this will artificially distort prices. Strictly speaking: The lowcoster would probably like to collect the money themselves.

In the corona pandemic, OTAs have shown themselves to be particularly negative, because the passengers were sent into a kind of endless spiral between the airline and the ticket dealer. Nobody wanted to be responsible for reimbursing the flights that were not performed. At Ryanair this was particularly complicated, as the company refused to reimburse ticket fees to OTAs and insisted on paying only directly to the travelers.

OTAs can be tedious in the event of a problem - Ryanair especially

But that is exactly a big problem, because many of these online ticket retailers use virtual credit cards and automatically generated e-mail addresses for bookings. This makes it almost impossible for the airline to contact the passenger directly. Often, information from the airline is then not passed on to the passenger. This problem also occurs with AUA bookings made via Expedia. The ticket retailer mentioned simply doesn't seem to care, because on request they pointed out succinctly that the customer can log into his booking himself and see whether something has changed.

Kiwi has what is known as an automatic check-in service. The passengers receive their boarding passes by email and do not have to do anything themselves. Sounds very interesting and is available at Wizz Air for a fee. Ryanair doesn't offer this itself, but that's not the point. The Irish lowcoster is maddened by the fact that Kiwi.com is replacing the Ryanair logo with its own. Otherwise the boarding passes are identical.

The low-cost airline writes that Kiwi.com is not authorized to issue Ryanair boarding passes, and certainly not with its own logo. Valid boarding cards would only be available on the Ryanair website or app and at the check-in counter. Anyone who shows up at the gate with a Kiwi boarding pass is no longer allowed to fly.

Ryanair obtained a preliminary injunction and is backing it up again

The reason Ryanair provides for the new approach is interesting because for years it has not cared about kiwi fruit: “According to EU Regulation 2015/1998, it is mandatory for passengers to go through the Ryanair check-in process Close directly to ensure passengers are informed of all safety and regulatory protocols required during the trip. Kiwi.com circumvents these essential aviation regulations by issuing its own boarding passes, which are not valid on Ryanair flights ”.

In order to give everything even more "spice", the low-cost airline brought about an injunction in a Czech court, which for the time being forbidden Kiwi to replace the e-mail address of the person making the booking with an “alternative e-mail address”. The carrier obviously wants to achieve that you can come into direct contact with the passengers. The OTA is accused of wanting to prevent the airline from contacting the traveler. In a message, the low-cost airline immediately followed up and accused Kiwi.com of disregarding the injunction.

Kiwi accuses Ryanair of malicious behavior on the backs of passengers

The Czech company seems taken by surprise by Ryanair's approach and points out that the boarding passes only differ from those of the airline by a different logo. All features would be the same one to one. The allegations of Ryanair are rejected as follows: "There are no such" fake "boarding passes - Kiwi.com meets all the requirements to ensure customers safe travel, and has been for years".

“Ryanair's behavior is simply impossible, because profit is put above passenger freedom of choice. We will do everything in our power to assist our customers through this heinous behavior by Ryanair. Passengers are only 'punished' because Ryanair does not want any competition ”, according to the Czech OTA. “Threatening to deny passengers boarding is petty and a bad practice by Ryanair to stifle customer freedom of choice. The real reason for this promotion is just that Kiwi.com often offers Ryanair tickets cheaper than Ryanair itself. That is exactly what they don't like ”.