Agents will be able to search for package holidays to multiple destinations from different UK airports on Jet2holidays’ trade site.
The update to the booking engine, made in response to agent feedback, was announced at the operator’s annual conference for independent agents in Calpe, Spain.
Searches to multiple destinations and airports can be made for any group size and filtered by price from mid-December.
Before the update, agents could only search multiple destinations from one UK airport at a time and for a group of up to two adults.
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Jet2holidays’ head of trade sales Alan Cross said: “We have made major enhancements. Because of the amount of flight combinations we have, the results you get back are phenomenal – so we’ve created a new platform for the search.
“People don’t just want to search flights from Glasgow or Edinburgh, they want to search for Glasgow and Edinburgh. Or even Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle.
“Equally, they don’t just want to look for Alicante, they want to look for Mallorca as well.
“It’s taking the broadest figure and narrowing it down as quickly as possible.
“Customers don’t walk into a travel agency and ask for specifics like seven nights four star in Mallorca in a particular week in August. They might come in and say they want to go away in August and discuss how long for, or where they want to go.
“This [update to the trade site] gets them there quicker.”
Other updates to the trade site include filtering searches by Jet2holidays’ brands, including new millennial brand Vibe – which was launched at the trade conference this week.
Cross dismissed comparisons of the multi-destination search with legacy booking system Viewdata.
Vertical Group, which owns the platform, recently touted developing a modernised version of the green-screen system – and had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to social media polls asking agents if they would like to see Viewdata resurrected.
One of the main reasons agents gave for supporting its return was the ability to search operators’ product range for any available date and destination.
Cross said Viewdata was “in the past” and said booking platforms such as Jet2holidays’ trade site included the enhancements agents wanted.
“We built a trade-orientated website that helped people move away from Viewdata,” he said. “Today’s technology is on a different level and really anyone who wants a return to Viewdata is stuck in the past.”
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