Four airlines, including an all business class transatlantic carrier, are joining the ‘Worldwide by easyJet’ initiative offering bookings via the UK budget carrier’s website.
Paris-based La Compagnie, Italian long-haul carrier Neos, Tui France subsidiary Corsair and Channel Islands carrier Aurigny will have access to easyJet.com, which had around 360 million visits in the past 12 months.
All four airlines have signed distribution partnerships to sell the partners’ standalone flights on easyJet’s website.
They join Norwegian and Canadian airline Westjet on the platform which was launched earlier in September.
The new partners together carry nearly three million passengers a year and will open up 30 regional and long-haul destinations to easyJet’s network.
They run complementary networks to easyJet and will allow passengers to book onward flights from Milan Malpensa to Madagascar or from Gatwick to Guernsey.
Stand-alone tickets on behalf of four new partners will be on sale by the end of the year.
EasyJet will continue to sign up other airlines up to the connections service.
French carrier La Compagnie carries business travellers between Paris and New York; Neos serves destinations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Middle East from Italian airports including Milan Malpensa, Rome Fiumicino, Verona and Bologna; Guernsey’s airline Aurigny offers Channel Island services and Corsair flies from Paris to points across Africa, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.
At the same time, passengers will be also able to connect their easyJet flight with Aurigny services using the GatwickConnects service at the airport.
EasyJet also confirmed plans for its flights and the Worldwide offering to be included in Google Flights.
Chief commercial officer Peter Duffy said: “The response to Worldwide by easyJet has been fantastic and we are excited to be meeting more latent customer demand through today’s new partnerships.
“The take up from customers in Jersey gives us confidence that we will see similar demand from Guernsey following our partnership with Aurigny.
“Partnering with Neos, LaCompagnie and Corsair further extends the range of destinations we can serve our European customers and we will be working with our partners to roll-out the self-connect product to relevant airports.”
Aurigny commercial director Malcolm Coupar said: “It is great news for people in Guernsey and will help reduce their worries about missing connecting flights.
“It will also help to promote Guernsey as a holiday and short breaks destination to the millions of visitors to the easyJet site, and make it easier to book a ticket to Guernsey from the wide range of places served by easyJet from Gatwick.”
La Compagnie commercial and marketing executive vice president Jean Charles Périno said: “La Compagnie has created a unique position between Paris-CDG and New York with its low fare, all-business class experience.
“It already goes beyond Paris and New York since self-connectors represent more than 8% of our total customer base – partnering with Worldwide by easyJet is a great accelerator for La Compagnie to reach new customers beyond Paris.”
Corsair network, alliance and revenue executive vice presicdent Julien Houdebine added: “Corsair International is very excited about future collaboration at Orly airport with easyJet in the Worldwide project.
“Connecting our long haul flights to the easyJet network to Europe and French province is a great opportunity for our clients.
“The connecting demand is very strong to all areas for our network: Caribbean (French West Indies and Cuba), Indian Ocean (Reunion, Mauritius, Mayotte, Madagascar), Africa (Senegal and the Ivory Coast) and Canada (Montreal). Developing an optimal connecting product for our clients is a priority.”