EasyJet Holidays has appointed former Travel Network Group marketing chief Si Morris-Green as its permanent head of distribution.
Morris-Green, who had been in a consultancy role in recent months, will host trade days in the next few weeks – but easyJet admitted it has no launch date for easyJet Holidays’ agent portal.
Morris-Green, who left Worldchoice and Travel Trust Association parent The Travel Network Group in February, said: “It’s great to be a part of a new business. I’m really looking forward to working with our partners.”
Paul Ablin, chief operating officer at easyJet Holidays, added: “He’ll be looking after relationships with key partners, which includes sales through external parties and our contact centre. He’ll also be continuing to explore how we might be able to work with the trade.”
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EasyJet Holidays officially relaunched last week and became a member of Abta.
Chief executive Garry Wilson had suggested, during October’s Abta Convention, that a trade portal would be ready in time for the brand’s relaunch, but a spokeswoman said this week that “it was only ever going to be to consumers” before 2020 and that “we haven’t confirmed timings”.
EasyJet confirmed it has been granted a temporary Atol licence for one million customers a year – 200,000 more than its previous total – by the CAA, as the regulator reviews figures after Thomas Cook’s failure.
Last week easyJet Holidays kicked off a major online, offline and TV marketing campaign which aims to hit 97% of its target ABC1 consumers 19 times each ahead of peaks.
Wilson said the brand would not be specifically targeting former Thomas Cook customers following its collapse but would “welcome them” if they wanted to book with easyJet.
He said although the carrier was already in talks with hotels prior to Cook’s failure, it had been “inundated with hotels coming to us” since.