EasyJet flight-plus-hotel customers will remain within airline ‘bookflow’

The boss of budget carrier easyJet says a new city-break proposition planned for later this year will be a “better” service for customers who book on the airline website or app.

 

The company revealed on Thursday (May 21) that it plans to launch a new flight‑plus‑hotel offering before this winter to allow holidaymakers “to book city breaks seamlessly within the airline book flow, improving the end‑to‑end customer experience and supporting higher conversion rates”.

 

Asked what this means for agents and the trade-friendly easyJet holidays operation, Kenton Jarvis, easyJet chief executive, told Travel Weekly: “EasyJet holidays will continue to work with travel agents and does so extremely well.

 

“This [new service] is strengthening and making an improved offer to our customers in the way they book their city breaks at the moment.

 

“If you book online [or] on the app, you either enter the airline world and get your flight, or you enter the holidays world and get a beach holiday or a city break.

 

“This product will allow city breaks to be sold within the airline bookflow, so people could come, secure their flight, secure the ancillaries they want, and then, without leaving that bookflow experience, secure the accommodation, so it is a better offer for the customers choosing to come online.

 

“We will still be offering city breaks and beach holidays through all our travel agents, and as part of this initiative, we have signed up extra distribution of city hotels, so our hotel inventory is going to go from 8,000 to 13,000.

 

“So there will be greater range and better choice for customers, whether they present themselves in travel agents…online or in the app.”

He said fulfillment of the flight‑plus‑hotel breaks will be through easyJet holidays, so they will be Atol protected.

 

“The range of hotels and city breaks will all be available through [easyJet holidays] systems, and therefore available to retail,” he added.

 

He said more details about a new loyalty scheme will be released at the start of next year.

 

“It will complement our existing and growing easyJet Plus membership very well,” he added.

 

News of the scheme follows the announcement by Tui of its Smiles reward programme, which is set to come to the UK market later this year.

 

Jarvis reiterated the pledge to “fly the summer schedule that we have on sale in full”, adding: “We are seeing no issues with, or neither have we seen, nor are we seeing any issues with our fuel suppliers at any of the 165 airports that we fly to and from…and I am not planning any cancellations.”

He predicted fuel costs will normalise when Gulf capacity comes back online but said the longer the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, companies with “weaker balance sheets may find themselves running into problems”.

 

The airline said its minimum price for the winter looks set to increase by £2-£3, noting that the minimum average ticket price through last winter was £67.

 

Jarvis said customers have been booking closer to departure for the past two months.

 

“I expect that will continue through the summer, but we have amazing fares out there,” he said.

 

“The fares are broadly in line with where they were this time last year, which, with inflation, the aviation industry, and price of fuel that’s not hedged, means they are incredibly good value.”

 

He said fuel hedging is providing important protection, with more than 70% of summer fuel secured at prices available before the Middle East crisis.