Customers queue for peaks sales Samantha Mayling


Customers have been queueing at travel agencies as pent-up demand, marketing campaigns and renewed consumer confidence have driven strong early peaks sales. Haslemere Travel owner Gemma


Antrobus said clients were queueing at the door at 9am on January 2. “We’ve been really busy,” she


said. “The election is out of the way and there’s an element of ‘we want something to look forward to’.” Premier Travel director Paul


Waters said: “December finished strongly. Our first trading day of January was encouraging and we are off to a positive start. We had people waiting for us to open [on January 2].”


Tony Mann, director of Bradford’s


Idle Travel, said: “There were six or seven people queueing [on Thursday]. Between Christmas and New Year it was really busy.” He said operators’ TV marketing


and renewed trust in packages following the collapse of Thomas Cook had encouraged bookings. Kelly Cookes, leisure director at


The Advantage Travel Partnership, praised marketing campaigns for inspiring customers to book. Clarity on Brexit following the election has also proven a boost. Cookes added: “People are feeling there is light at the end of the Brexit tunnel.” The Travel Network Group chief


executive Gary Lewis said members had seen a “very strong start”, adding:


December finished


strongly. Our first trading day of January was encouraging and we are off to a positive start


“Consumer confidence is on the rise and there is more certainty.” Chris Bailey, managing director


of two-branch Bailey’s Travel, said: “December picked up on the back of the election being out of the way.” Fred Olsen Travel head of


commercial Paul Hardwick said enquiries were up 38% year on year between Christmas and New Year, despite one less day of trading.


“No one has mentioned the word


Brexit for two weeks,” he said. “That’s making people want to spend money.” Homeworking agencies also


attributed growth to a post-election consumer confidence boost. Travel Counsellors reported a 14% rise in 2020 bookings made in December, while Not Just Travel said Boxing Day sales were up 60%. The positive outlook was


reflected in Travel Weekly’s online polls. Almost two-thirds of 133 respondents on Facebook said they had had a positive start. One-third said business had been slow. On Twitter, 53% said they had


seen a positive start; 20% reported slow business; and a quarter said trading was on a par with last year.


EasyJet Holidays aims for earlier trade launch


Lee Hayhurst


EasyJet Holidays is bringing forward its launch to the trade in the wake of the collapse of Thomas Cook, the operator has revealed. Although the carrier’s operator


division has always said it was keen to work with third parties, it had never previously confirmed when it would open to agency sales. However, pressed to give a date at


a Travel Weekly Business Breakfast to launch the annual Insight Report last


4 2 JANUARY 2020


month, chief operating officer Paul Ablin confirmed easyJet was “hoping [the trade launch] to be February or March time”. He said: “It was not originally


planned to be quite so soon, but with Thomas Cook failing we have tried to bring it forward.” Ablin said Cook’s “unexpected”


failure had prompted easyJet Holidays to reconsider its capacity planning and add more hotels to its programme. In particular, more beds were contracted in Turkey.


Paul Ablin, easyJet Holidays


Speaking last month after easyJet


Holidays relaunched to the public, Ablin said: “We have only been going for two weeks, but we are looking to be a big player in the market. “We have properly invested in


easyJet Holidays this time, although we have done well in the past working as a white label.” EasyJet Holidays increased


staff numbers by 30 to 40 people in light of the Cook failure due to expectation of additional demand. Ablin said easyJet expected


distribution of holidays to be similar to the airline, at 80% direct and 20% indirect. It recently increased its Atol to one million passengers a year, suggesting it expects about 200,000 holidays to be sold by third parties. Sheelagh Mahoney, head of leisure


distribution, said easyJet Holidays was the carrier’s big opportunity for 2020. “It presents its own challenges because we already work with the trade as an airline, but it’s a new


proposition with new energy.” i Business Breakfast, back page


travelweekly.co.uk


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