The boss of easyJet holidays has seen no sign of customers trading down – and is optimistic for continued growth in 2025.
Garry Wilson, chief executive, said: “We’re coming out of 2024 really happy and going into 2025 continuing a trajectory of growth.”
The operator is on target for 2.5 million customers this year, up 30%, and will make £180 million in profit, he said.
“Next year, we are targeting three million customers,” he added.
“In terms of trends, we are not seeing any trading down – the number of nights is staying the same and the top destinations are Spain, Greece and Turkey.
“Over 70% of people are still booking four and five-star hotels and over 60% of people are booking all-inclusive.”
He said the late market for this year has been “very strong” and summer 2025 is selling really well.
“We’ve already sold a third of our planned capacity for next year,” he commented.
“For lates, we’ve had a particular advantage, with customers coming on the easyJet site 90 days before departure to book flights and we’ve been able to get in front of them and convert them to booking the whole holiday with us.
“There have been fewer families in that market, but we have seen a big resurgence in families getting in early for next year.
“Maybe they left it late in 2024 and prices went up and they didn’t get what they wanted, so they are getting in early for 2025.
“We are also seeing a resurgence in North Africa – both winter and summer.”
He said the operator was “excited” about new destinations such as Skiathos, Tromso in Norway, and Luxor Nile cruises.
“Krakow and Prague, for example, are selling really well, probably replacing some Iceland business which has slowed a bit,” he added.
“We have big ambitions for 2025 and we’re going to continue to do more of what we’re doing as it seems to be working very well.”
Kenton Jarvis, who is taking over from Johan Lundgren as easyJet chief executive, pledged to continue the airline’s low-cost mission.
“My appointment as CEO was a continuity play as I already had a strategic CFO role and helped sharpen our strategy three years ago,” he said.
“We set out targets at that time, achieved them a year ago and then set out new ones.
“I really see my role to help execute that strategy and deliver these medium-term targets.
“My whole purpose is to make low-cost travel easy. Easy for customers and easy for colleagues.
“It’s a challenging environment out there but I want to fulfil that purpose – to make low-cost travel easy. It’s why easyJet was built in the first place. That’s our focus and we’ll do everything we can to deliver on that.”
Johan Lundgren, the outgoing chief executive, added: “We’re very confident and we have a huge number of opportunities to crystalise.”