EasyJet holidays has hailed a “phenomenal response” from the trade after the launch of 16 new routes from eight UK airports before Christmas.
The tour operator has reinstated flights from Southend, Newcastle and Birmingham in addition to adding more holidays out of Edinburgh, Luton, Liverpool and Belfast airports.
New destinations launched from those airports include Parma, Majorca, Malaga, Greek Islands, Turkey, Bulgaria, Morocco and Tunisia.
Head of distribution Brad Bennetts told a Travel Weekly Webcast: “Travel agents have been asking us relentlessly to come back to Newcastle so we are really delighted that we’ve been able to do that.
“We’ve seen a phenomenal response from the trade so far. For example, on our Liverpool-Heraklion route, which is a new route, 60% of initial sales were from the trade.”
More than 40% of sales of the Edinburgh-Rhodes route have been from the trade while Newcastle and Birmingham routes have enjoyed similar, high levels of trade support, he added.
“I think the most important thing for us is that we have given a lot more agents access to our programme and our proposition by bringing on particularly Southend, Newcastle and Birmingham,” Bennetts said.
“That gives us great access to a whole new range of agents to work with and demonstrates our value for money holidays.”