Ryanair ties up with WebTrends to analyse website visitor behaviour

Ryanair has selected WebTrends On Demand to analyse website visitor behaviour. The initiative will enable the low-fare airline to have a complete understanding of visitor activity across all of its 19 different language web sites.

“WebTrends 7 On Demand was the only web analytics solution evaluated that would provide the comprehensive analysis Ryanair needed, given the complexity of having the most routes and the broadest range of languages of any low-fares airline online,” stated the airline. “Ryanair will be able to identify web visitor trends across its European sites and utilise the in-depth reporting provided by WebTrends On Demand. This is crucial to advertisers who need an understanding of the habits and preferences of each country’s web users in order to target campaigns more effectively.”

With WebTrends SmartView, Ryanair can evaluate the popularity of each individual page link with click-through, path, conversion metrics, as well as visitor segment behavior, superimposed directly on the page being viewed.

Santina Doherty, head of advertising and ancillary revenue, Ryanair said that with 98% of its flight bookings being made over the Internet, analysing web site and visitor behaviour “is increasingly important.”

“As we need to have a clear understanding of our web visitors, a key benefit of working with WebTrends On Demand is the accurate and actionable management reports which enable us to make informed decisions quickly -- a must-have in our fast-moving industry sector,” said Doherty. 

“With WebTrends On Demand, Ryanair can measure its web site visitor behavior and utilise accurate reporting to identify which areas entice visitors and which need optimisation,” said Nick Sharp, vice president and general manager, WebTrends EMEA.

In another development, the airline announced a new five-year exclusive deal with Hertz to provide car hire deals for all Ryanair passengers on Europe’s largest travel website, www.ryanair.com.

“Over the period of the deal, Ryanair will grow faster than any other major European airline, enabling Hertz to more than double its sales with us as we double our passenger numbers from 35M this year to 70M passengers per annum in 2012. Ryanair and Hertz are together gaining increasing marketshare of car rental unit sales throughout Europe as Ryanair’s low fares take-off all over Europe,” said Micheal O’Leary, chief executive officer, Ryanair.

The airline has also reaffirmed annual earnings forecasts despite volatile fuel prices and said it had signed a ten-year deal for expansion at Brussels Charleroi Airport. O'Leary reportedly said the carrier still expected to deliver a ten per cent rise in net profit for the current year. “We see no reason to change any of those forecasts,” he added.