The bosses of Jet2holidays and easyJet holidays have committed to continuing to focus on growing their businesses in the UK.
Speaking at this year’s Travel Weekly Future of Travel Conference both tour operators hailed the opportunity for domestic expansion as their priority.
When asked about expanding Jet2’s operations to overseas markets, chief executive Steve Heapy was non-committal.
“You never know but we have always got lots to do in the UK. There are lots of things we are thinking about,” he said, adding: “We have 12 bases and capacity is increasing; we have got capacity increases for summer 2025 for many of the bases and summer 2026 goes on sale very soon. We will concentrate on that at the moment.”
Garry Wilson, chief executive, easyJet holidays, ruled out expansion to other European markets beyond its current operations out of Germany, France and Switzerland.
“There is such a lot of opportunity in the UK because we have a network, brand and aircraft. For us the opportunity is in the UK and the UK regions; Europe is a smaller opportunity in comparison,” he said.
He said the operator was “thinking about” growth potential in Germany, but conceded: “It’s a very different dynamic in Germany; more travel agent driven and less online [sales].
“The opportunity in Germany is through the travel agency network but is that what you want, to put teams in, infrastructure, fixed costs? It’s something we’re thinking about but I am more excited about growth in [new airport bases] Birmingham and Southend.”
By contrast, online travel agency Loveholidays, which sells out of the UK and Ireland, is focused on expansion into additional international source markets.
Chief executive Donat Retif said the OTA was now having success in the German market following its launch in the destination last year.
“The first six months in Germany were difficult. The last six months we saw outstanding profit,” he said. “Once you convince Germans to go to your website, it’s a massive market. It took us 12 months to be profitable.”
He said the company would continue to look at new source markets. “Because we don’t have any assets, it’s a very good path for us to continue to grow.”