Ryanair CEO Fears AI Platforms Could Start Laying On Distribution Fees

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has a new potential target in his ongoing battle over travel distribution costs: AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

O’Leary warned Monday that AI platforms could follow the path of online travel agencies (OTAs) by controlling large volumes of customer traffic and then charging hotels fees to access those customers. He spent years criticizing OTAs as “pirates” for charging such fees to consumers, as well.

“We, the OTAs, everybody needs to continue to be very vigilant that the next layer of technology, the AI, Alexa isn’t able to control huge volumes of distribution and turn around, start chargi