Will Ryanair (RYAAY) Be Future Amazon (AMZN), Alibaba (BABA) Of European Travel?

In Ryanair Holdings plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RYAAY)’s future, it sees itself as the Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) or Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) of the travel industry, its boss, Michael O’Leary, revealed in an interview on CNBC.

Ryanair Holdings plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RYAAY) is banking on its Ryanair Labs unit to deliver a website which will soon offer price comparisons with other carriers in Europe.

The group, trusted by the airline to be its weapon to become the Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) or Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) of travel, is also tasked to launch holiday packages direct from the company in years to come.

“We have the lowest fares. We set up this Ryanair Labs – 200 bright tech guys and girls now in Dublin – making not just the Ryanair website a website for an airline, but making a digital platform. We aim to make Ryanair Labs [to] become sort of the Amazon of the travel industry in Europe,” O’Leary said.

He said in an earlier part of the interview that he is not at all scared about people being able to comment on his company’s website. He is also not averse to price comparisons with other airlines because he is confident that his airline offers the lowest fares.

Furthermore, he said that the current fault of the industry is that it has all these aggregator websites like Skyscanner for price comparison and Tripadvisor for rating. These should be integrated to an airline’s website, he said, which is what Ryanair Holdings plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RYAAY) aims to do.

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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), which has been often compared to Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) because of the nature of its business, recently rebranded its travel unit as Alitrip.

According to Bloomberg, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is making a push into the travel industry as the niche is booming in China. Alitrip will also focus on converting the growing number of people visiting its properties, even on Alitrip, through mobile devices.

After reporting its quarterly performance, Ryanair Holdings plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RYAAY) raised its profit guidance for the fiscal year to between €750m to €770m (£602m) from €620m-€650m. This is the third guidance upgrade from the company for the year.

The more positive outlook, fueled by gains made by the company from its customer service push, has boosted the company’s stock price.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shareholders includes Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management which reported by the end of the second quarter that it owned about 2.47 million shares in the company.

Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies held about 3.25 million shares of Ryanair Holdings plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:RYAAY) by June 30.