In what has been described as one of the most significant deals for Vodafone Ireland's business division the company has partnered with Ryanair to provide 95 per cent of the carrier's telecoms, M2M and communications needs.
The agreement will facilitate Ryanair's teams including pilots and cabin crew with up to the minute information, improving the overall customer experience within the airline.
Vodafone will support ticketing, check-in, ground crews, in-flight crews and pilots with telephony, fixed line and mobile 3G and 4G functionality across Ryanair's 189 locations in Europe and North Africa.
Vodafone Ireland Enterprise Director, Anne Sheehan, said: "This business partnership is one of the most significant for Vodafone Ireland to date, demonstrating our total communications capabilities by providing complete end-to-end solutions tailored to Ryanair's requirements across 189 locations in Europe."
Ryanair's Chief Technology Officer, John Hurley, said: "As part of our Always Getting Better improvement programme we're continuing to enhance the Ryanair experience for our 90 million customers annually.
"This partnership with Vodafone will provide us with the technical support to allow us to make these improvements quickly and seamlessly, including the introduction of paperless cockpits and a swifter inflight sales system."
Part of the initiative is the introduction of the electronic flight bag that will remove paper from the cockpit which is fundamental to Ryanair's strategy.
In addition, Vodafone will support the on-board electronic point of sale (EPOS) devices used for in-flight credit card sales.
From April 2015 Ryanair crew will be issued with 8,000 new handheld devices with machine to machine connectivity which will create a secure managed connection to sync data with credit card companies when the plane lands.
Vodafone Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connects previously isolated machines or devices to the Internet, delivering new functionality and enhanced services without the need for human intervention.