SHEARINGS has launched its first flight and coach programme to the ScottishHighlands.
The coach operator says it is reacting to consumer reluctance to take two days to travel from the south by coach and has sent leaflets advertising the programme to agents. It will be fully brochured next year.
Sales and marketing director Chris Barnes said: “Traditionally we are a coach company but for the last few years we have been looking at how to get customers from the southeast up to Scotland more quickly.
“At the moment it is a two-day journey each way by coach, which is too much, so we have put together a programme which we will develop next year. We were planning on starting the air-inclusive holidays next year but the opportunity to use an aircraft came early so we started it this year.
“We brought it in because we were getting feedback from customers in the south that this is what they wanted and it is doing well.”
Shearings already operates fly and coach holidays to Europe, Ireland and the Isle of Man. Barnes said the new programme was part of a Shearings drive to introduce more flights to its portfolio of holidays.