Chief executive Michael O’Leary teased a return to package sales at the weekend, telling The Telegraph he wouldn’t rule out setting up a holiday division in a bid to attract more customers.

However, O’Leary said the move would be conditional on the budget carrier receiving all 350 of the aircraft it has on order from Boeing.

While Ryanair’s first foray into the package market in 2016 was short-lived, O’Leary said packaging holidays would also be “a reasonable way of charging higher fares and yields”.

It’s provoked a mixed response from the trade, with some agents praising the prospect of budget package options, while others’ minds go back to being stung by Ryanair in the past.

"Ryanair would have to prove it can match the standards of other operators as they look after our customers very well,” Idle Travel director Tony Mann told TTG.

“It would take a whole lot of convincing for us to sell Ryanair package holidays.”

Thorne Travel owner Shona Thorne said she would need to be convinced Ryanair would be able to deliver its schedule reliably and potentially up the quality of its offering.

"It doesn’t have the best customer experience," she said. "And for us, it’s all about the customer experience – I would be uncomfortable putting a lot of business that way."

For Thorne, Ryanair would need to have to do better when comes to changes and amendments, highlighting the costs and inflexibility of its policies.

“What happens nowadays is that if Ryanair cancels a flight, it gives the customer the refund back. But then the customer has to rebook a different flight that can be four or five times more expensive than what they originally paid,” she continued. 

“Its terms and conditions need to give us the confidence that Ryanair actually believes in the travel industry as up until now, Michael O’Leary has not been very keen to work with the industry.”

Why not?

Thorne’s concerns were shared by Jennifer Lynch, general manager of ArrangeMy Escape, who said she wasn’t convinced Ryanair would even give third-party agents access to its packages.

She added: “Ryanair doesn’t really care that much when it comes to flight-only – they’re quite happy to cancel a service and just give the money back to the client. How would that be representative as a package holiday?"

By contrast, Beverley Travel director Karl Douglas told TTG he didn’t “see any reason why” he shouldn’t sell a Ryanair package holiday as the risk of something going wrong “would be on them”.

"The problem with packaging Ryanair at the minute is that it’s difficult to deal with them if anything changes. But if it was to package holidays, we would sell it like we do with Jet2holidays and easyJet holidays."

The comments broadly mirror the results of a snap TTG poll on the issue, with 48% of respondents saying they wouldn’t sell Ryanair package holidays; 30% said they would, while 21% said they were unsure.

Amid all the contrasting views, the likes of InteleTravel and the Advantage Travel Partnership took a more diplomatic stance, telling TTG they would consider the opportunities presented if and when the time comes.

“With any new entrant into a market, InteleTravel would assess whether the relationship would be beneficial and vice versa,” said a spokesperson for the homeworking firm. “Agreements with new suppliers usually come after fruitful discussions over a period of time, rather than any snap decision.”

Advantage chief commercial officer Kelly Cookes added: “Should Ryanair become a package holiday provider, we would, of course, look at the opportunities it would present."