'Sleeping giant' Corendon Airlines targets further growth from UK market

Corendon Airlines’ UK country manager has described the carrier as a “sleeping giant” in the UK as he outlined his desire to grow awareness of the brand.

 

Matthew Carpenter, who joined the carrier from YouTravel in November last year, said his aim is to make Corendon a “familiar name” in the market through targeted marketing campaigns and trade support.

 

Carpenter pointed to Corendon’s scale across Europe, including in Germany, and the Netherlands where its tour operation turns over €800 million annually, as he set out his hopes of the UK business closing the gap. 

 

“In the UK we’re still something of an unknown, and that’s my challenge [to change that],” he said, speaking to Travel Weekly at Corendon’s ’Get Together’ event held at its Amsterdam Schiphol hotel.

 

"When I talk to agents [in the UK] I don’t speak to them about the airline, I talk about how big the overall Corendon group is.”

 

Carpenter said the airline is looking to raise awareness of the brand in the UK through targeted advertising campaigns at airports it flies from, including Newcastle and Glasgow. It also operates from Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and Stansted.

 

“We’re looking to target the right passenger demographic,” said Carpenter, who added the airline has “internal plans to achieve growth which we’ll announce over the course of the next year”.

 

The airline carried out consumer research in the UK in summer asking people what they knew about Corendon, which “revealed awareness of the brand was low”, but Carpenter said the airline is achieving “steady, calculated growth”.

 

He added: “The ultimate goal is for Corendon to be a familiar name in the UK market. We are 100% a sleeping giant and there’s work to do to change that.”

 

Corendon, which carries 10 million passengers a year, announced in August it would increase frequencies on routes from six UK airports for summer 2026, with capacity growing 9% compared to 2025. 

 

Antalya will be served by daily flights from Stansted and multiple weekly flights from Manchester, Gatwick, Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle.

 

Heraklion in Crete will also receive regular flight connections as the leisure carrier raises capacity by 20% over this year from the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland.

 

“At the start of 2025 we took some of the routes that were not performing so well and adjusted them. Now, we’re doubling down on the routes that are performing well, such as Stansted,” said Carpenter.

 

He added the airline could launch a route to Hurghada next year after the carrier opened a base in the Egyptian city in June.

 

“When we opened the Hurghada base the conversation was around whether there was an opportunity for the UK [to fly there], and there is scope to in future for sure.”

 

Carpenter reported a rise in trade sales since he took up the role thanks to “more meaningful conversations with partners” and “more strategic campaigns”.

 

“We’ve also managed to start working with a few more partners that we didn’t work with before,” he said, adding: “In the future, the travel trade is absolutely crucial for our business.”