Ryanair took off in 1984 with a single route between Waterford, Ireland, and London Gatwick Airport. After six years of gradual expansion, the airline adopted a low-cost business model, positioning it for a decade of explosive growth when the EU deregulated the airline industry in 1992. Ryanair launched its website in 2000 with the vision of making it the primary channel for customer transactions. After successfully weathering the COVID pandemic, Ryanair emerged as one of Europe’s largest airlines, serving destinations across the continent and beyond. The soaring demand for travel during the post-pandemic rebound revealed serious issues with its DNS service, leading Ryanair to switch to Vercara UltraDNS.
Serious challenges, critical lapses.
The end of the pandemic saw an unprecedented spike in business for Ryanair. In 2022, the number of passengers served more than tripled from the previous year and jumped again in 2023 to an historic high. This sudden business surge placed significant stress on Ryanair’s online infrastructure and website, the primary channel for ticket sales, customer service, and other essential transactions.
The increased demand for online services uncovered reliability issues with the company’s authoritative DNS service. The airline experienced service disruptions that had a direct impact on its business and led to negative customer feedback. “No airline can afford interruptions in online access,” said Ray Maloney, IT Infrastructure Manager for Ryanair. “Our website is the first line for passenger interactions, and customers aren’t happy when they can’t reach it. Our business suffers.”
The airline also had doubts about the scalability of its existing DNS service, both for short-term traffic surges and long-term business growth. “We thought our provider was struggling to keep pace, and the service disruptions didn’t help,” Ray said, “Coming out of the pandemic, we really needed to be confident that our website would be accessible for new and returning customers, now and as we grow in the future.”
In addition, the incumbent provider had a poor record of technical engagement coupled with lackluster support. “We mostly heard from them when they were trying to sell us something,” Ray recalled. “And when we did need support, it was all reactive. They didn’t really try to help us work more effectively together.”
Looking for a better solution.
Ready to make a change, Ryanair requested information and proposals from several DNS service providers, including Vercara. The airline was seeking a service that would deliver improved reliability and scalability along with more responsive and proactive customer support.
The Ryanair team was impressed with Vercara’s 100% uptime guarantee, backed by 25 years of experience. After exploring the solution further, they were confident in its seamless scalability and appreciated the built-in DDoS protection that ensures availability even if a significant DDoS attack targets DNS.
Vercara also made the testing process simple and straightforward, and UltraDNS delivered the best technical performance of all the competitors. “The Vercara team demonstrated outstanding knowledge of their DNS solution and how it could work with our existing infrastructure,” Ray remembered, “and they went out of their way to make the testing phase easy to manage. That made an impression.”
After Ryanair decided to switch to UltraDNS, the assistance they received during the transition validated their decision. “Vercara helped us plan the migration. They were available whenever we had questions and took the time to brief our team on the nuances of integrating with their service and systems,” Ray said. “We completed the transition to UltraDNS in phases, with no problems at all.”
Blue skies for Ryanair.
With Vercara, Ryanair has successfully addressed the challenges they faced with their old DNS service.
- Reliability: The airline now enjoys a 100% uptime guarantee for DNS, ensuring that its website and booking systems are consistently accessible to customers.
- Scalability: Ryanair’s website accessibility is not compromised by surges in traffic during peak travel seasons, delivering uninterrupted access for customers during even busy times.
- Engagement and support: The personal service Ryanair received during the evaluation and transition has continued, with comprehensive quarterly business reviews and 24/7 support.
“We have regular interactions with the Vercara team, and that’s helped us build a positive, collaborative relationship,” Ray said. “We’re able to quickly resolve any minor issues that come up. Lots of companies talk about building a partnership. They’ve actually done it.”
The infrastructure team has noted additional benefits as well. “We’ve seen improved performance in our online services, which has translated to faster load times and a more seamless user experience for travelers,” Ray said.
For Ryanair, choosing Vercara was as much a business decision as a technical one. “We need to ensure that our customers have a seamless, positive online experience,” Ray observed. “Vercara’s commitment to deliver a reliable, responsive DNS service aligns with our commitment to customer satisfaction.”
“We’re in an intensely competitive industry,” Ray added. “We need every advantage we can get, and Vercara gives us one.”
Find out how UltraDNS can deliver reliable, scalable, worry-free access to your websites and digital infrastructure from anywhere in the world, with lightning-fast query responses and industry-leading DNS resolution, by visiting our product page.
