The Review ➔ EasyJet out in force at BTM
BTM NEWS
EASYJET'S stronger presence at BTM this year reflected its
new strategy to woo more business travellers and increase their percentage of seat sales, currently at 18 per cent of the total. Its £99.99 Flexifare is at the core
of its business offering, and allows unlimited free date changes in a four-week period, one piece of hold luggage and one of hand luggage plus Speedy Boarding. The fare has been on online booking tools since last December and went live on its own website in June. “It’s now available on all channels,” said Jerry Dunn, the airline’s distribution development manager, “and we’ve had a very good response to date. £99.99 is competitively priced and we’re hoping to use it as a vehicle with TMCs who can in turn influence buyer behaviour." “We’ve been on the GDS since
2008 so that’s three years of learning but we’ve not had the resources before now to promote and communicate and build relationships,” added Dunn. “We have 88 per cent load factors
so it’s not about selling more seats but getting more high yield business passengers as they book nearer to departure and we can get a higher price per seat.” Backing up the product offering is
a three-strong UK corporate sales team. James Marchant, Adrian
IN THE AIR IN BRIEF
• BMI is set to introduce a new service between Heathrow and Amritsar in Northern India, taking off on October 13. The three-times- weekly service will operate via Almaty in Kazakhstan, with fares starting from £659 and a two-class cabin configuration.
• BRUSSELS Airlines is enhancing its Africa network with the addition of two weekly flights to Bamako in Mali from September. It added four new routes last year and now serves a total of 21 destinations across Africa.
Keating and Paul Davis are led by Claire Haigh as head of sales UK. The structure will be replicated
in its main markets in continental Europe, in Switzerland, Spain, Italy and Germany but the main thrust will be the UK as 75 per cent of revenue emanates from this country. easyJet is also appointing a regional business partner based in North West England this summer. “We want to persuade corporate buyers to always include easyJet in their policies. We’re not going to be discounting our fares but we can give softer benefits around customer service, such as our
membership scheme to give free speedy boarding for a year, or access to a business lounge, for example. It depends what the corporate wants, but they will all be non-price related benefits.” “We’re interested in those corporates who like us cost-wise but are not booking us, so we have to unblock those reasons, change the corporate mentality and explain the frills that we can offer. A lot of it is to do with snobbery about flying on a low-cost carrier,” said Dunn. EasyJet is reviewing its business traveller offering, including its bag and boarding policy.
• A NEW satellite terminal has opened at London Heathrow's Terminal 5. The third part of the terminal, known as T5 C, increases capacity by an extra three million customers a year – over 70million people on over 500,000 flights have used T5 since it opened in March 2008. The new satellite terminal has 12 boarding gates, of which eight are triple bridges designed to cater for the new 12-strong fleet of Airbus A380 aircraft joining BA from early 2013.
• MALAYSIA Airlines has been accepted as a member of oneworld and will begin operating as part of the airline alliance from late next year. It will expand oneworld's network to almost 950 destinations in 150 countries, with 10,000 flights daily.
• GERMANWINGS has installed new, more spacious seats in the first ten rows of its planes. The 'Best Seat' is available for a surcharge of 15 euros or as part of the carrier's 'Best Tariff which includes seat reservation, one item of luggage and snacks.
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