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EasyJet is reported to be in talks with Greek tourist chiefs to extend the country’s summer holiday season.
The budget carrier is aiming to offset the impact of this year’s terror attacks in Tunisia which has shifted demand to north Mediterranean resorts.
EasyJet wants restaurants and hotels in Greece that currently open from May to September to take customers from March until November.
UK regional director, Sophie Dekkers, told Bloomberg that the airline is initially seeking extensions through to October from next year.
“We can’t fly people there if there aren’t hotels or restaurants open, but they’re not going to open unless we’re bringing people in, so it’s kind of chicken and egg,” she said.
EasyJet scrapped flights to Monastir, its only Tunisian destination, after a terrorist killed 38 people in the resort of Sousse in June, just months after an attack on the Bardo National Museum in Tunis left more than 20 dead.
Travel to other countries in North Africa is recovering only slowly.
“There’s a lot more unrest in places like Egypt and North Africa than we’ve seen,” Dekkers said. “Where we probably would be piling on a lot more capacity, at the moment we’re being a bit more cautious because the consumer is being more cautious.”
EasyJet’s discussions with the Greek tourism officials are also aimed at avoiding a repeat of bed shortages in the Canary Islands in 2014 after airlines shifted capacity there following the first attacks on tourists in Egypt for eight years.