Ryanair agrees deal with Amadeus to woo business customers

DUBLIN, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Budget airline Ryanair widened its new offering to win over business customers on Wednesday, announcing that it has agreed a deal with Spain's Amadeus to sell seats through the technology company's network of travel agents.

Europe's largest low-cost carrier has ditched charges for checked-in bags on some fares, offered free flight changes and fast-track passage through airport security in an attempt to attract business travellers who have tended to shun the no-frills airline.

Ryanair has for years sold tickets exclusively through its website, but Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said it would need additional global distribution channels to reach what he described as old-style business class customers in Europe.

"In North America, people don't want to waste time in business lounges or drinking bad champagne at seven o'clock in the morning. They want to get to the airport, get through it quickly and go do their business," O'Leary told a news conference in Germany.

"Europe is going to move in that direction in the next five years, but we need Amadeus's help to make Ryanair visible to GDS (Global Distribution System) agents and to GDS consumers whose wives and children might be on the Ryanair.com website, but they won't be. It's the way we broaden Ryanair's appeal."

The new business travel strategy is part of the Irish airline's plans to almost double passenger numbers from 82 million a year to 150 million as it brings an order of up to 380 Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) jets on stream over the next decade.

The agreement with Amadeus is the second such distribution deal Ryanair has signed this year after returning to the GDS space for the first time in more than a decade by partnering with distribution services company Travelport in March. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by David Goodman)