The boss of budget airline easyJet has not seen a shift in booking patterns towards cooler destinations, despite reports of the rise of the “coolcation”.
While the UK has seen a wet and mostly cool summer so far, southern Europe has experienced more heatwaves, with temperatures reaching 44C in Spain recently.
Johan Lundgren, easyJet chief executive, said on Wednesday: “There is no big change. If you look at the most popular [destinations], it would be the usual suspects: Majorca and Faro (pictured).
“If you’re looking at easyJet holidays, the popular family destinations would be Turkey, which is doing really well for us, and Hurghada.
“Paris is doing well for us on city breaks…and the Greek islands. We are the largest airline into the Greek islands, and that whole area is doing really well for them.
“There’s no big difference from a normal year.”
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He made his comments after easyJet released its third-quarter financial results, showing Q3 profits improved by £33 million year-on-year to £236 million.
EasyJet holidays “continues to perform strongly”, increasing pre-tax profits by 49% to £73 million with passenger growth of 33% in the three months to June 30.
“Summer sunshine is high on customers’ wishlist, with Palma, Malaga and Faro the top choice destinations for this summer, with the Greek islands and Turkey also showing an increase in popularity,” Lundgren continued.
“Over the course of the third quarter, we have seen customers booking closer to the date of departure, and so we expect to see this continue into summer peak.”
Lundgren also said the airline is not seeing any impact from the protests in certain destinations about overtourism.
At least 20,000 people took to the streets of Palma on Sunday (July 21) in the latest protest against mass tourism in Spain.
“We don’t see any impact, it is not a new issue,” Lundgren commented, highlighting the importance of travel and tourism to destinations’ GDP.
“We are very mindful when we do engage with authorities and the decisionmakers there about the benefits of tourism, which many places and destinations are dependent on.”
The average fare for the third quarter was £73, similar to the level seen at the same time last year. And the average fare for flights currently on sale is about £67, he added.
“People will gravitate towards value. They will gravitate towards brand that they trust and the attraction of the network,” he said.