A technical adjustment was enough to sink eDreams by 40% in one day

Last week, eDreams shares plummeted more than 40% on the stock market in a single day. The cause was not a tourism crisis or another pandemic, but a technical change: Ryanair has raised a digital wall that prevents eDreams robots from accessing its tickets, sinking the airline’s reservations by 80% since September.

Why is it important. It is the most violent chapter in the battle for control of the client, a war that comes from far away.

• Ryanair wants to eliminate intermediaries that charge extra commissions (“pirate OTAs”, according to them).
• Thus forcing users to buy on its official website. eDreams is the last great fortress that refuses to give up.

The “cat and mouse game”. Dana Dunne, CEO of eDreams, has used this metaphor to describe your historical relationship with the airline:

1. The mouse (eDreams): use a technique called screen scraping (robots that read the Ryanair website) to read the prices and sell them on their platform.
2. The cat (Ryanair)– Implement technological blocks to prevent this.

The current result: the cat has set a new trap and the mouse cannot escape. The lockdowns have intensified so much that eDreams has had to cut its profit forecasts by 2026.

The map. Ryanair has managed to divide its enemies. While eDreams resists, other giants have already capitulated and signed “peace”:

• The allies (verified): Booking, Kiwi, Expedia and El Corte Inglés have signed agreements. They agree not to inflate ticket prices and share actual customer data with Ryanair. In exchange, they have direct access to the system, without blockages.
• The rebel: eDreams refuses to sign. They argue that they stand for “shareholder value” and customer experience. Although They won a court battle for unfair competition in Barcelona This summer, they are now losing the trade war.

The offline front. Neighborhood agencies. Because the pressure is not just digital. Ryanair has eliminated paper boarding passesforcing everyone to use your app.

• The problem is that traditional agencies (represented by AVIBA) feared they would be left out of the game if they could not give the printed ticket to their clients (many of them older).
• There is a truce: Ryanair allows agents to continue managing boarding, but forces them to do it digitally (capturing QRs and sending them to the customer’s mobile phone). It’s more manual work, but it allows them to survive.

What the sides say:

• Ryanair: “eDreams should recognize that it is now the only major OTA that does not follow price transparency standards (…) and continues to overcharge customers.”
• eDreams: “They try to prevent us from accessing the content and we overcome the obstacles they put in front of us. (…) There is a possibility that we will be able to overcome those obstacles, as we have done before.”

In summary. Ryanair is winning by suffocation. By improving your technology anti-scraping and signing individual agreements with the competition (Booking, Expedia and company), has left eDreams isolated and vulnerable, demonstrating that in the low-costwhoever has the planes has the power.

In Xataka | Now we know why Ryanair charges its passengers for everything: it is the key to having a profit of 2,540 million euros

Featured image | Nejc SokličMockuuups Studio, eDreams