The chief executive of Jet2 and Jet2holidays has stressed the need for the return of an early booking market because “people find it very hard to cancel a holiday”.
Steve Heapy was asked about the impact of global geopolitical tensions during an on-stage discussion with travel agent relationships director Alan Cross at the company’s annual conference in Paphos, Cyprus.
He said the Hamas-led attack on Israel which took place on October 7, 2023 was one of the reasons there was a late market in 2024 as “bookings fell and recovery took a lot longer”, comparing the impact of the massacre with that of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Heapy said such a sudden and unexpected drop in bookings creates a difficult decision for operators.
He explained: “When you lose business, you’ve got two choices: you can either do more marketing, which attracts some people, or drop prices. If marketing doesn’t bring people in, you have to drop prices.
“That’s alright for filling the aircraft, but it can create a situation where you condition the customer, because they see lots of deals in the lates period and think, ‘Wow, look at these prices – if we wait as well, we’ll get that price.’
“You create a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the market then becomes late.”
Heapy said there were “two rules in operating”, explaining: “Rule number one is fill the aircraft. Rule number two is re-read rule number one. You have to fill the aircraft.”
He told agents there were many reasons for the need to return the market to regularity, chiefly because people who book a holiday are not likely to then cancel it in the event of another global crisis.
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He added: “We have to return the market back to an early booking market and there’s lots of reasons for it.
“The chances of getting someone that doesn’t really want to book a holiday are quite difficult; it’s difficult to get them to make that commitment. But if you get people to book early, and then something happens, people find it very hard to cancel a holiday.
“You have to create certainty, security and reduce risk in the business by getting people to book early.
“Get them to commit, and the chances are they won’t cancel. We have to flip the market back to being an early booking market.”
He added this is why much of Jet2holidays’ recent marketing has switched to summer 2025 and beyond, with the focus largely on family bookings.
“It’s about getting the right message out there,” he said. “We know families book early and families know when they’re going on holiday because they know when the school holidays are.
“And what do families want? They want the best kids’ clubs, the best facilities. They want interconnecting rooms and family rooms.
“And we’ve got to push that, which is where it gets back to marketing. You’ve got to be as specific as you can.”