Chief operating officer Jonathan Woodall-Johnston confirmed the deal was agreed earlier this month after Hays approached Ryanair following boss Michael O'Leary's change of heart about working with the travel trade.
It means Hays agents can now offer Ryanair flights when creating dynamic packages for their clients, offering greater flexibility when booing city breaks, in particular.
The move brings the agency into line with some of travel's biggest names including Tui, On the Beach and Loveholidays, which have signed distribution deals allow them to package Ryanair flights.
Tui last year said it was looking to sell upwards of one million packages featuring Ryanair flights, highlighting the flexibility it offered for city breaks and short trips.
'Product gaps'
While the deal excludes adding any mark-up to the cost of the Ryanair flight, Woodall-Johnston said the value of the arrangement was to be found elsewhere. “We’ve got access to their air content which, from a tour operator point of view, allows us to be flexible," he said.
“Ryanair have got some routes and bases that other airlines don’t, so for us, we think this is an opportunity to fill some of the product gaps that we identified.”
Ryanair currently operates flights to more than 80 destinations in 27 countries from the UK and while Woodall-Johnston said every route is valuable, he suggested the deal would help drive the city break market.
Woodall-Johnston added the arrangement will also drive customer satisfaction, saying: “It gives us the opportunity to demonstrate value for our customers. Ryanair do the Canary Islands and some of the destinations the mainstream do, but it gives us the choice, value and service we want our customers to have."
