EasyJet holidays has signed over 40 flagship beach properties this year that were previously under exclusive contracts with competitors.

The operator says four and five-star hotels now account for over 70% of easyJet holidays sold.

Parent company easyJet’s half-year update said the upmarket packages are generating a ‘significant margin premium’ and the holidays business is one of the areas the group has earmarked as key to recovery.

“Our highly scalable business model ensures low fixed costs (93% variable) with strong marginal profit contribution,” it said in its update.

“We continue to enjoy strong partnerships with leading hotels without the need for financial commitments or inventory risk and during the first half we signed over 40 additional flagship beach hotels which were previously under exclusive contracts with our competitors, whilst establishing connectivity with some of the world’s largest hotel chains including Hilton, Accor, Radisson and Intercontinental Hotel Group to offer range to our cities offering.”

EasyJet said its Protection Promise has retained over 60% of those customers whose holidays were affected by COVID-19 in the first half of 2021. 

Further ahead, holidays for winter 2021/22, which were launched in December are ‘experiencing very positive demand’.

“Bookings for summer 2021 are currently significantly ahead of last year, although it is evident that many customers are looking for further certainty around quarantine rules prior to booking,” easyJet said in its update.

Meanwhile, easyJet holidays says it’s become the first major tour operator to offset carbon emissions from packages.

Holidays will be offset without any cost being passed on to customers.

EasyJet holidays CEO Garry Wilson said: “It’s something that’s really important to us at easyJet and easyJet holidays and we’ve got to do all we can. We’ve spent a lot of time when we’ve not had customers travelling working on our sustainability plans.”