Ryanair signs five-year Google Cloud deal to deploy AI across airline operations

Ryanair signs a five-year AI deal with Google Cloud, and a second cloud to fall back on

Ryanair has signed a five-year data and AI partnership with Google Cloud, rolling out Google Workspace and Google Cloud services to 35,000 employees and making Gemini Enterprise, Google's agentic AI platform, the centrepiece of how Europe's largest carrier intends to run itself. The airline has tied the deal explicitly to its growth target of 300 million passengers a year by 2034, roughly a 44% increase on the 208.4 million it carried in the financial year to March. Gemini Enterprise will be used, in the companies' description, to automate decision-making, optimise flight crew logistics, and support corporate productivity generally. Ryanair plans to use Google DeepMind models, naming AlphaEvolve and WeatherNext, to support fleet operations and maintenance scheduling. WeatherNext is DeepMind's forecasting family, which for an airline running around 3,900 flights a day out of 95 bases is not a peripheral application. It also plans to replace its existing collaboration systems outright with Workspace and Gemini. Running underneath all of it is a resilience argument that Ryanair has put ahead of the AI one. The airline describes the arrangement as a "dual-cloud strategy", in which Google Cloud helps build a system flexible enough that if one provider has problems, critical services keep running. "Ryanair is on an incredible growth journey to 300 million passengers by 2034," said Eddie Wilson, Ryanair's chief executive. "To support this growth, we need to ensure we have excellent infrastructure resilience, and our new dual-cloud strategy provides this, alongside technology partners that match our speed and relentless focus on efficiency." Maureen Costello, Google Cloud's vice-president for the UK, Ireland, and sub-Saharan Africa, put the case in industry terms. "Aviation is an industry defined by precision, and Ryanair is a pioneer in operational execution," she said. "This agreement demonstrates how deploying generative AI at scale, coupled with modern collaboration tools for frontline workers, can help industry leaders scale securely, reduce operational costs, and redefine the travel experience." The scale Ryanair is buying for is real. It ended the last financial year with 647 aircraft, having taken delivery of all 210 Boeing 737-8200 Gamechangers, and has 300 737 MAX-10s on order, split evenly between firm orders and options. Boeing expects certification of that aircraft late this summer, with the first fifteen due to Ryanair in spring 2027. Pre-exceptional profit after tax for the year was €2.26bn, up 40%. What the release does not say is as notable as what it does. There is no named migration of specific workloads, no BigQuery or Vertex AI commitment, no disclosed contract value, and no timeline for when any of the AI applications reach production. Airlines have been announcing operational AI for the better part of a decade; the difference here is the size of the seat count and the explicit link to a passenger target eight years out. Ryanair is not new to building software, whatever its reputation for spending nothing. It runs Ryanair Labs, an in-house technology operation with hubs in Dublin, Madrid, and Wrocław, and has spent years pushing passengers towards direct booking, a campaign that produced a €255m Italian antitrust fine in December 2025 over its treatment of online travel agents and a settlement with Booking Holdings the previous August. It also runs against a current. Airbus is moving its most critical applications off AWS to a French sovereign cloud, a decision framed around European control of European infrastructure. Ryanair, characteristically, has gone the other way and bought the American stack twice over.

Ryanair signs Google deal to expand use of AI in airline operations | BreakingNews

Ryanair said on Wednesday it would deploy Google's Gemini AI tools and DeepMind models across its operations under a new five-year cloud partnership, using the technology to help manage crew scheduling and make operational decisions. Ryanair, Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers, said it would roll out Alphabet's Google Workspace and Google Cloud services to 35,000 employees across its network, supporting its efforts towards a goal of carrying 300 million passengers annually by 2034. "To support ⁠this growth, we need to ensure we have excellent infrastructure resilience, and our new dual-cloud strategy provides this, alongside technology partners that match our speed and relentless focus on efficiency," ⁠Ryanair chief executive Eddie Wilson said. Ryanair's deal with Google Cloud adds to its existing use of Amazon Web Services as part of a strategy to reduce the risk of technology outages. The airline said it would use Gemini Enterprise ⁠to develop custom AI agents ⁠to automate some decisions, improve crew scheduling, and reduce disruption. The carrier said it would also use Google DeepMind models, including AlphaEvolve and WeatherNext, to support fleet operations and maintenance scheduling. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. "This agreement demonstrates how deploying generative AI at scale... can help industry leaders scale securely, reduce operational costs, and ⁠redefine the travel experience," said Maureen Costello, Google Cloud's vice president for the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa. The aviation industry has been expanding its use of AI in customer service, operations and maintenance, according to studies by aviation technology provider SITA and airline trade body IATA, as airlines seek to improve efficiency and reliability. - Reuters

Ryanair signs five-year Google Cloud deal, expands use of AI in airline operations

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Ryanair said on Wednesday it would deploy Google's Gemini AI tools and DeepMind models across its operations under a new five-year cloud partnership, using the technology to help manage crew scheduling and make operational decisions. Ryanair, Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers, said it would roll out Alphabet's Google Workspace and Google Cloud services to 35,000 employees across its network, supporting its efforts towards a goal of carrying 300 million passengers annually by 2034. "To support this growth, we need to ensure we have excellent infrastructure resilience, and our new dual-cloud strategy provides this, alongside technology partners that match our speed and relentless focus on efficiency," Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson said. Ryanair's deal with Google Cloud adds to its existing use of Amazon Web Services as part of a strategy to reduce the risk of technology outages. The Irish airline said it would use Gemini Enterprise to develop custom AI agents to automate some decisions, improve crew scheduling and reduce disruption. The carrier said it would also use Google DeepMind models, including AlphaEvolve and WeatherNext, to support fleet operations and maintenance scheduling. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. "This agreement demonstrates how deploying generative AI at scale... can help industry leaders scale securely, reduce operational costs, and redefine the travel experience," said Maureen Costello, Google Cloud's vice president for the United Kingdom, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa. The aviation industry has been expanding its use of AI in customer service, operations and maintenance, according to studies by aviation technology provider SITA and airline trade body IATA, as airlines seek to improve efficiency and reliability. (Reporting by Sam Tabahriti; editing by William James)