WAP Joint Venture with Eircell

Ryanair Holdings PLC 12 April 2000 RYANAIR.COM AND EIRCELL ANNOUNCE W.A.P. JOINT VENTURE Ireland's Largest Website And Ireland's Largest Mobile Phone Company Team Up To Offer Low Fare Website Access Ryanair announced today (Wednesday, 12th April 2000) that as a result of an agreement signed between Eircell and Ryanair, customers of both companies will shortly be able to book their flights via their mobile phones through the integration of WAP technology and the hugely successful Ryanair Website. The agreement was announced by Michael O'Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair at the COMMS 2000 conference at the RDS in Dublin this afternoon. The joint development and marketing initiative builds on the two companies success in their respective areas - the Ryanair.com website and Eircell's mobile internet offering. Ryanair's hugely successful internet booking service which now accounts for over 30% of bookings made with Ryanair will be made exclusively available on Eircell's WAP information service in the Republic of Ireland. A customer with an Eircell WAP phone will then be able to check flight availability and book and pay for their Ryanair flights using their mobile phone in the same way they can currently use their PCs. The agreement to provide WAP flight booking service exclusively on Eircell mobile phones includes a major co - marketing initiative that will see each company promoting the others services. Both companies confirmed that the WAP booking services will be in place before the summer and Ryanair's Chief Executive, Michael O'Leary said: ' This is a deeply significant move for Ryanair, helping reduce our costs and significantly extending the success of our internet booking service and giving even more access to Ryanair's low fares to Eircell's one million mobile phone users. As a pioneer of quality WAP services and a leading innovator in the e - commerce sector, Eircell was the obvious choice for us. Eircell is undoubtedly driving the change from voice to data in Ireland making WAP, mobile internet and increased data speeds a reality for Irish users' Welcoming the announcement, Eircell's Chief Executive, Stephen Brewer said: 'Eircell and Ryanair are natural partners as the driving forces behind new development in their respective business sectors. We have always chosen top calibre content providers to work with us in the data revolution. Ryanair has demonstrated its innovative nature through its strategic use of internet technology as a key distribution channel. Our aim is to build on the success Ryanair has achieved with its website, and to deliver it to a bigger audience using the most pervasive and most personal electronic device - the mobile phone' For further information please contact: www.RYANAIR.COM - The low fares website of Europe Pauline McAlester Murray Consultants Telephone: 01 - 663 3332 Editor's Note WAP is the technology that allows Eircell customers to browse the internet using their mobile phone. Eircell is Irelands leading mobile phone operator with more than 1 million customers and 5 million conversations a day. The company employs one thousand people and invests five million euros a month in infrastructure and customer care. RYANAIR.COM is now Irelands largest website, with an audited figure of 8.9 million page impressions during March. As Ryanair's low fares network continues to successfully expand in Europe, the growth in business and bookings at RYANAIR.COM continues to grow exponentially.
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