Brad Bennetts, easyJet holidays’ Head of Distribution, says the operator has been ‘blown away’ by the support from travel agents since it launched to the trade last August. The operator already has all the major independent consortia on board and it’s planning to work with more agents in the future.
Here Brad talks more about easyJet holidays’ latest plans.
What’s selling best for this summer?
We’re seeing some of the classic favourites topping the bill for this summer, so Turkey, Greece, and Spain especially Majorca, Tenerife, and Lanzarote. It changes all the time, but we’ve seen departures for this June and July as well as September and October selling well, which makes sense since we’re seeing a large proportion of bookings coming through for adults only for this summer.
In terms of board basis, it’s definitely all-inclusive proving to be the most popular and I think this is because it gives customers greater peace of mind when it comes to their holiday spending, which is an important factor for many, right now.
Who is booking for this year?
There’s a mix, and we have some bookings which have been amended from last year, and of course new bookings too. Most recently we’re seeing a large proportion of adult-only bookings. But things change all the time at the moment. We all know how much pent up demand there is, and we see it every time there’s a positive announcement or when restrictions ease.
What are easyJet holidays’ USPs?
We know customers look to brands they trust and easyJet has been a pioneer in transforming travel for over 25 years, so we’re bringing that to the holidays sector.
We have an unmatched short-haul leisure network so we’re really well positioned to be the winning European airline as we come out of the Covid pandemic and we have an opportunity to become the most trusted holiday provider.
Our holidays can be secured with a deposit of just £60 per person and include flexible flight options, an industry leading 23kg bag allowance, and transfers on beach holidays.
We’ve also introduced our ‘Flexible Booking Conditions’ to the trade. We’ve permanently overhauled our standard terms and conditions to offer travel agents greater flexibility when booking with easyJet holidays, for added confidence when booking clients’ holidays.
How is easyJet holidays supporting agents?
We’ve been really well-supported by agents since we launched to the trade, so we want to play our part and offer support in return. We had a very well received commission uplift in January. We’ve had holiday competitions and vouchers, exclusive promotions, and fam trip place giveaways.
Now, with the reopening of shops, we’ve sent branded marketing material to more than 1,000 high street stores. Also, agents who make bookings before 16 May will be automatically entered into a draw to win one of eight holidays every week for four weeks.
The first draw takes place on 26 April and the winning agents, who will be announced on the easyJet holidays’ agents Facebook page, will be given a £1,000 credit to be used on any holiday across its European network.
We’ve also run webinars and we set up a dedicated agents Facebook group so we can share latest news, offers, social media assets designed specifically for agents to use.
We’ve also got our trade support centre which is open seven days a week from 9am to 6pm. We’ve been really proud to have led the way when it comes to processing refunds and we’ve launched our Flexible Booking Options to give ultimate flexibility in these uncertain times. All these initiatives are to show that we want to support trade agents at a time when it matters most.
What’s the latest news from easyJet holidays?
We’re going live with some activity to celebrate the re-opening of high streets. There’ll be more giveaways and some customer engagement opportunities too.
And we’ve just launched our brand new Lakes holidays to Como, Maggiore and Garda in Italy.
We’re constantly reviewing where we fly to and from, and we’ve gone live with some new routes out of Birmingham for this summer.
We’ve currently got holidays on sale through to October 2022 and we’re working on plans and news, including promotions, all the time.
