IF RYANAIR’S CAPTCHAS have had you baffled in the past – like this one, which proclaimed ‘I fancy you’ – then you may be glad to hear that things are changing.
The budget airline announced today at its AGM that it is to remove recaptchas for individual bookings from 30 October. It will also, in a surprising move, make its mobile app free to download from 1 October – up until then it will cost €3.
Milestones
At the AGM today, the airline will outline recent milestones, including the fact that it was the first EU airline to carry 9 million passengers in a calendar month (August) and the first EU airline to carry 80m passengers per annum.
Traffic is set to grow from 80m to 110m per annum in the coming years, it said. Ryanair has ordered 175 new B-737 aircraft and concluded a 10-year low cost deal at Warsaw Modlin. It has also agreed a 10 year low cost deal at London Stansted.
Digital strategy
Ryanair is now changing its digital marketing strategy, which includes a new website, plus a number of other features.
It recently launched the @Ryanair Twitter account, for example.
It will also remove the Recaptcha security feature for individual passengers from 30 Oct next – though the feature will remain in place for high volume bookers, screenscrapers, travel agents etc.
It will have a redesigned booking flow which will go live in December, and a passenger registration/retention service live for summer 2014, which it says will substantially reduce the time it takes to complete bookings.
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said the past summer saw Ryanair’s operations set new record highs, with 94 per cent of flights on-time in August, less than one bag per 3,000 passengers misplaced and less than one cancellation for every 10,000 flights operated.
He added:
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.
He said that the forthcoming improvements will be accompanied by a new digital marketing strategy “which will see Ryanair switch a significant proportion of its marketing budget from old to new media, with a particular focus on mobile and social media platforms”.
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