The squeeze on consumer budgets amid soaring food and fuel costs has not proved to be as bad for travel as many in the sector had feared – but while inflation remains high, prices will still increase, warns the chief executive of Jet2.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, Steve Heapy said: “The impact from cost of living probably hasn’t been as bad as we thought.
“People seem to be sacrificing other things – look at the sales of lottery tickets, sales of online streaming services, they are down.
“People seem to be sacrificing other things in order to still have the holiday.
“A lot of people, prior to last year, hadn’t had a holiday for three years.
“It’s not a discretionary purchase. It’s an essential purchase.”
However, he warned: “We are still in high inflationary times…and we’ve been quite insulated.
“But the longer this goes on, the harder it will become to justify that purchase.
“We need inflation to come down. And many people still think that when inflation drops prices go down.
“Well, they don’t, prices are just going up by a slightly smaller amount. While inflation remains at these levels, prices will continue to rise.”
More: Jet2 unveils 11th base at Liverpool John Lennon Airport
He was speaking to Travel Weekly as Jet2 and sister brand Jet2holidays announced their 11th base will open at Liverpool, offering flights to 20 destinations from next summer.
And despite the continuing high rate of inflation, he remains confident that independent travel agents have a “bright future”.
“They’ve performed very well. We have seen people going back to the high street and getting back to the previous ways of booking,” he said.
“Many travel agents changed their business model during the pandemic and started looking at other ways of attracting customers, rather than just trying to pull people off the street.
“The travel agents that have done really well are the ones that kept up with those things, working more on social media, doing more to cultivate a marketing portfolio of customers and keep them updated.
“They’re very passionate people, they know a lot about the destinations, and they can sell holidays and build excitement.
“And the independent travel agents of this area around Liverpool airport have now got a real package holiday company they can use and I’m sure will be working very strongly with us.”
He said Alan Cross, Jet2holidays’ head of trade, will be contacting independent travel agent partners in the Liverpool area about the new services, adding: “We’ve got a great partnership, a win-win partnership and we look forward to working with [agents] for a lot longer.”
However, he would not be drawn on other innovations or new products in the pipeline from Jet2 and Jet2holidays.
“We’re always working on things…we have a desire to remain very innovative company and respond to the needs of our customers,” he said.
“We listen to our customers, see what they want and we provide it to them.”