NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK
season to date. o market sentiment in the UK appears to have mirrored that in ermany at the start of the year despite the added complications of Brexit. fK noted booking comparisons for anuary and ebruary in ermany will be challenged by the strong growth seen in early . The same is true of the UK where anuary last year saw a increase in summer bookings. Office for National tatistics
ON data released last week confirmed total UK outbound holiday numbers rose last summer on to new record totals of million during uly to eptember and million in the months to eptember. The ON figures include independent holidaymakers as well as those booked via the trade. The first full week of
trading this year saw summer bookings fall year on year, but season-to-date summer bookings remained up in line with last year and bookings for the current winter were up in the week. fK noted the season-to-date position in the UK remains “strong” but “can be easily eroded”. ollowing the December decline in summer bookings, fK warned: “This drop is due to concerns over summer . We hope consumer fears can be calmed. f not, we’ll see summer struggle.” David Hope, fK senior
client insight director, also noted family bookings for this winter up year on year in December while family bookings for summer were down and said: “We wonder if some families have swapped a summer holiday for winter due to Brexit fears.” et fK also noted “a strong
performance by high street shops given the challenging backdrop” in converting winter - bookings.
Ryanair blames fares drop as it trims profit forecast
Ian Taylor
ian.taylor@travelweekly.co.uk
yanair issued a rofit warning last wee its seond in our onths laing a yearon year all in winter ares.
The carrier cut its full-year
profit guidance for the months to arch to billion to . billion, down from a previous forecast of up to . billion which, in turn, was lowered from up to . billion last October. The airline warned: “We cannot rule out further cuts to airfares andor slightly lower full-year guidance.” t blamed the “lower-than-
expected airfares” on overcapacity on short-haul routes in Europe while itself recording a upturn in passenger numbers year on year. Chief executive ichael O’eary
expressed “disappointment” at issuing the warning but said: “t is the direct result of lower-than- expected airfares since October. “There is short-haul
overcapacity in Europe this winter, but yanair continues to pursue our price strategy to the benefit
Carrier offers no insight on closure of Ryanair Holidays
yanair has declined to explain its winding up of yanair Holidays or to say how many bookings remain to be fulfilled. The carrier confirmed last
week yanair Holidays had closed but would not say when and referred all ueries to an online statement saying: “t is no longer possible to book a package on yanair Holidays. However, all
86
travelweekly.co.uk24 January 2019
CLOSED: Ryanair has pulled its holidays arm without explanation
previous bookings are unaffected.” n , when yanair Holidays
relaunched in the UK, reland, taly, ermany and pain, it was touted as a step on yanair’s “ourney to become the Amaon of travel”. At the time, yanair chief marketing officer Kenny
O’LEARY: ‘This lower fare environment will continue to shake out loss-making competitors’
7%
Fall in Ryanair’s winter airfares on last year
of customers who are enoying record lower airfares.” O’eary forecast fresh airline
failures leading to consolidation in the sector, saying: “We believe this lower fare environment will continue to shake out loss-making competitors, with Wow, lybe and, reportedly, ermania all for sale.” He said yanair was enoying
“stronger-than-expected traffic growth” and “improving ancillary revenue performance”. O’eary said: “The fact that we
are passing on these benefits, in lower airfares, to customers is good for yanair’s traffic growth, good for our business over the medium and long term, and good for market share as evidenced by Norwegian’s recent announcement of its plans to close bases in ome, ran Canaria, Tenerife and Palma, where it competed with yanair.” Easyet hailed “robust customer demand” and revenue “in line with expectations” in its uarterly results released on Tuesday.
acobs told Travel Weekly that yanair Holidays would become “a meaningful part of the business, a meaningful package holidays brand”, saying: “We’ll expand into other markets.” et yanair’s most-recent
half-year results statement made no mention of yanair Holidays. The holiday brand promised
three, four and five-star hotels in packages “with full consumer protection”, with acobs saying: “We’ll incentivise customers buy holidays from us.” He suggested yanair might
“upsell to package holidays”.
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