Archives for June 2008
A warm welcome to easyJet!
By Janchrister Egnefors, February 2008With modest 8-9 departures from Copenhagen, easyJet is not exactly a large player in Scandinavia. For that reason, some people do not find it particularly interesting that easyJet has gone over to distribution via Amadeus GDS. I do not share that view. Read more…
easyJet lands on the GDS runway
February 2008Slowly but surely the low cost carriers are moving over towards GDS, which for decades has been exclusively for the traditional airlines. This is the start of a shake-up that will have great consequences for all involved. The low cost carriers are on the hunt for business travellers, but will the established players just let them in? And can the challengers deliver the quality that business travellers have come to expect?
easyJet, one of the largest and most dynamic low cost carriers, is one of the challengers that is now establishing itself in Amadeus GDS. We interviewed Jerry Dunn, Head of Distribution at easyJet, to get a better view of their plans and to see how they view the future. Already today about one in five easyJet customers travel for business purposes. According to Jerry Dunn, easyJet’s future plan is to attract an even larger proportion of passengers from the large attractive business segment.
“We estimate with about 20 per cent of our passengers being business travellers, but are setting our sights on increasing that proportion even further. easyJet was originally founded as a low cost tourist airline to popular destinations, but in pace with our growth we have also attracted more and more business travellers. We know we can get more travellers from business travel agents, which is the reason behind some of our recent initiatives.”
Does this entail radical changes in your distribution strategy?
“Our primary distribution channel, or our Jewel in the Crown if you prefer, is still our www.easyJet.com website. But now we have turned to GDS and other third party distribution solutions as one way of focusing on the business travel sector.”
How will this impact your business?
“We’ll have no problem filling our planes, our capacity utilisation of recent months has been at 83.5 per cent, but business travellers pay more for their tickets because they book a lot closer to the journey. They will therefore give us larger profit margins and improve our average revenue per seat.”
Are you planning incentives to travel agents for selling your tickets?
“No, that would be against our principles. We are at first hand an airline that sells tickets directly to travellers. This has been a very successful model so we see no need to stimulate travel agents to sale our tickets. We know there is a demand for our products, among business travellers as well as tourists. The point-of-sale fee we charge for a booking compensates for the loss of significant revenues from partners we would otherwise get through our website bookings. It should also compensate for the cost of joining the GDS.”
Today easyJet has only one Scandinavian destination and that is Copenhagen. What are your expansion plans for Scandinavia?
“We are always looking at different ways of expanding on to new markets and our overall aim is a 15 per cent annual growth rate, but we have no specific plans for Scandinavia at present. But naturally, should a good location arise in Scandinavia I am sure we would evaluate it, but I know of no such plans at the present time.”
Facts, easyJet - 40 million passengers flew with easyJet in 2007 - Founded by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou in 1995 - The Head Office is housed in Hangar 89 at Luton Airport - easyJet is a pronounced low cost airline - easyJet has no flights outside of Europe
Photo: Jerry Dunn Jerry Dunn, Head of Distribution at easyJet, is looking to charm business travellers.
Amadeus strengthens its Marketing Division with Peter de Verdier
February 2008Amadeus’ new Marketing Manager Peter de Verdier has previous experience from large companies like IBM, Electrolux and IKEA. He is now looking to make Amadeus even more customer-oriented by offering more complete solutions. Read more…
Low cost carriers a much longed-for addition in the GDS
February 2008Rising flight and hotel prices led to spiralling travelling costs for many companies in 2007. But despite the increase in the number of employee trips during the year, the travel budget at If remained the same. Read more…
Improving profitability through hotel bookings
February 2008How would you as a travel agency like to increase the profitability of your travel bookings by 50 per cent in 30 seconds? Of course you would. Ark Travel in Gävle are among those who have improved their profit margins by investing in hotel bookings. Read more…
New platform and new destinations for FlyNordic
February 2008Norwegians’ acquisition of FlyNordic last year has led to great changes on the Scandinavian airline market. Meanwhile, FlyNordic will now distribute contract prices via the Amadeus system. Read more…
The largest Nordic online travel agent eTRAVELi chooses Amadeus
February 2008European Travel Interactive (eTRAVELi), the largest Nordic online travel agent, recently signed a contract with Amadeus. Seat24 and SRG Online, which are part of eTRAVELi, therewith gain access to the Amadeus global distribution system. Read more…
