EasyJet holidays is showing its support for travel agents this week by offering its databas customers a chunky discount if they book through their local retailer.

The promotion will be launched on Thursday to celebrate the anniversary of the operator’s launch to the travel trade on 19 August 2020.

All easyJet’s customers will be offered £100 off an easyJet holiday costing at least £700 booked through a travel agent.

The offer applies to all bookings made up to Sunday and the promotion will be supported with an advertising and social media campaign.

EasyJet holidays Head of Distribution Brad Bennetts said the operator has been ‘blown away’ by support from travel agents over the past 12 months.

He said retailers account for four times more bookings than easyJet holidays had anticipated when it launched to the trade last August.

Currently, it is working with 3,000 travel agencies, but the number of agents selling easyJet holidays is actually higher since this figure includes agency groups which have many individual homeworkers.

“From now on it is about nurturing those relationships, building trust and working with agents to bring their businesses forward,” said Mr Bennetts.

To celebrate the trade’s achievement over the past year, easyJet holidays launched a competition earlier this week to give agents a chance to win one of 15 places on a fam trip to Tenerife.

Mr Bennetts said he is also looking at other ways to engage further with travel agents, including face to face contact by participating in events such as the Travel Gossip roadshows.

What packages are agents selling?

The Algarve has sold particularly well for this summer, said Mr Bennetts. “It’s a big destinations for us,” he added.

For next winter, green-listed Iceland is one of the most popular destinations, even though it still has tight entry restrictions.

For winter sun, Benidorm is proving popular, while looking further ahead, Turkey and particularly the resort of Antalya is in demand, despite its red-list status.

EasyJet holidays’ flexible booking policy, which allows customers to amend a holiday to an amber-list destination up to 24 hours before departure, plus its commitment to provide automatic refund for cancellations within 10 days, was giving agents the confidence to book.

“It is really looking positive for next year,” he added.