The discount airline CEO says Google's project "blows the competition out of the water."
Could Google's next project be to revolutionize the way people buy their airline tickets?
That's what Michael O'Leary, chief executive of discount airline Ryanair, said in an interview with the Independent.
Google is working on a new price comparison tool for airline travel which will “blow everyone else out of the water”, according to budget airline Ryanair.
Speaking to Irish newspaper the Sunday Independent, airline bossMichael O’Leary said that he was helping Google with some “exciting developments” in airline ticket sales.
The company has shared its pricing information with the company, which is developing a service that will display fares without bias and then direct customers to third party sites where they can buy tickets.
"Google will say, 'Here are the fares,' then you click straight through to Ryanair or someone else. It blows everyone else out of the water," said O’Leary.
"Because Google, being Google, want to show all of the prices from all of the airlines on display. They don't want to charge us, they make all of their money out of advertising.
"They don't want to have a limited or biased search. They want to be able to say they've screened all of these airlines on all of the routes. They need to find who has got the lowest airfare on these routes... and that's us," he said.
O’Leary also said that Ryanair was working on incorporating more technology into its own services.
"In five years' time, everyone on Ryanair will be paying on their mobile. You'll pay for your drinks and snacks with your mobile. You'll upgrade to priority boarding on your mobile,” he said.
O'Leary said he is working with Google on a plan to change how consumers buy their airline tickets. He also said the Internet giant is working on a price-comparison tool that will blow other comparison sites "out of the water."
Ryanair will share its pricing through Google, and the airline is working to be part of the launch, he said.
He added the project could go live as soon as March.
Google, by the way, already has a booking system called Flight Search, which launched in the UK in March. The company didn't have much to say about anything new in the works.
"We already have relationships with a number of airlines across the world but are always looking to improve the results by signing deals with more," according to a Google representative. "We have nothing new to announce at this stage."
