NEWS


P&O sales chief vows to enhance trade relations


Samantha Mayling


P&O Cruises’ new sales chief has pledged to “leave no stone unturned” in his drive to improve relationships with travel agents. Rob Scott, vice-president of sales,


marketing and brand, admitted the line had “not always got it right” with its trade relations strategy and execution. But he told a Travel Weekly


webcast that agents were “absolutely critical” to its future success and added: “We’re absolutely focused on enhancing the tools and the relationships we have with agents.”


Scott took over from sales


and marketing head Alex Delamere-White in May, with additional responsibility for multi-channel guest communication and travel trade relations. He insisted P&O Cruises had


attempted to keep agents engaged during the pandemic-enforced shutdown despite a reduction in headcount, but said he was now intent on improving aspects of the business including call centre wait times, agent training and the size of the line’s sales team. “I’d love to be in a position to put more boots on the street,” he added.


“That will take time as we start to


rebuild the team. “We have to make sure it’s really


easy to do business with us.” In addition to working on


individual trade partnerships, Scott said P&O had also continued to enhance its Shine Rewards Club, including the opportunity for agents to redeem points for cruises on new ship Iona. “It’s another way of getting agents


to experience and see first-hand what the holiday experience is like,” he said. “We’re multiplying Shine


Reward points to incentivise getting agents on board.” Scott said the line was also


confident it can fill new capacity, including Iona and forthcoming sister ship Arvia, as demand improved from new and returning passengers. “We’ve got a very strong product


with Iona. It’s a very different and new product, but we’ve also got our existing ships,” he said. “What we’ve seen through Covid


is that people are looking for security, trust and the feeling that they’re investing their holiday money well.”


Lundgren tips ‘very good summer’ Ian Taylor


EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren anticipates “a very good summer 2022” but called for the removal of all Covid tests on vaccinated passengers as he reported the airline’s preliminary full-year results. Lundgren insisted “recovery is


under way” as he confirmed easyJet is “looking to operate up to 70%” of its 2019 capacity in the final three months of this year. But he urged the government


to remove the day-two lateral flow tests due to replace the current PCR test requirement for vaccinated passengers, and suggested Gatwick – easyJet’s biggest base – should


travelweekly.co.uk


“focus on resilience rather than expansion” as it consults on plans to use an emergency runway for scheduled flights. Lundgren reported ski routes


from the UK “doing very well since the government announcement” of relaxed test requirements and “very encouraging bookings for next summer” at easyJet holidays, “with two times the number of bookings for summer ’22 as summer ’21”. Lundgren said: “We’re scaling


up for what we believe will be a very good summer 2022.” EasyJet holidays welcomed its first


customers to Egypt this week and Lundgren said: “We’re very encouraged by the performance to Egypt and Turkey. The model has proved itself.”


Yet he insisted: “We would like


to operate with no restrictions. We’d like to see the government remove the lateral flow test. That is what the rest of Europe has been doing since July. We’d like to see that test go. We believe it should go [and]


Johan Lundgren


we believe the UK government is working towards that over the next few months.” Asked what he thought of


Gatwick’s expansion plans, Lundgren said: “Gatwick should focus on the resilience of the airport. That is the key priority. Recovery and on-time performance are our priorities.” EasyJet operated 58% of its


2019 capacity in the three months to September with “a stronger performance on intra-European and UK domestic routes” than international routes from the UK due to government restrictions, but its losses in the quarter more than halved year on year. It reported a pre- tax loss for the 12 months of between £1.13 billion and £1.17 billion.


14 OCTOBER 2021 7


Iona; inset, Rob Scott


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