The boss of EasyJet Holidays has set out his vision for it to become the UK’s biggest package holiday firm.
Garry Wilson, chief executive of the low cost airline’s holiday company, outlined an ambition for it to overtake Jet2 Holidays and TUI.
He said the Luton-based firm, which launched four years ago, had “surpassed expectations” and was already the “UK’s fastest growing tour operator”.
He told a media briefing at the Abta travel convention in Bodrum, Turkey, on Wednesday: “My personal ambition for EasyJet Holidays? I don’t think we want to stop until we become the biggest player in our sector.”
Industry insiders said it was entirely possible that easyJet Holidays could achieve its aims as it has "untapped capacity" at present, with only about four per cent of its airline passengers going on to book a holiday.
By comparison, rivals such as Jet2 - which flies holidaymakers on its own planes - is thought to be approaching capacity, though it has ordered 31 new planes.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, Mr Wilson said he wanted his firm to be number one for “sustained profitability” rather than a ranking based Atol licenced passenger numbers.
Latest Atol data has Jet2 Holidays in first place with permission to carry 6.7m passengers, followed by TUI with 5.8m. EasyJet Holidays is in fifth place, not far behind We Love Holidays and Booking.com.
EasyJet Holidays is expecting to announce a £120m profit for its 2023 financial year, on a £1bn turnover. It had about two million customers in 2023.
Referring to Jet2 and Tui, Mr Wilson said: “We will see, when they file their year-end results, how close they are.”
About 100m passengers a year fly on EasyJet. Mr Wilson said the aim was to attract more people booking direct flights to “trade up” to a package deal.
About 84 per cent of EasyJet passengers are making leisure trips. The in-house holiday firm’s aim is to stop these passengers booking accommodation with rival firms.
“If a customer comes on to EasyJet and they’re looking for a leisure destination, and it becomes clear that they’re a holiday customer, we will serve up the opportunity for them to look at EasyJet Holidays and be able to convert that flight to a package,” Mr Wilson said.
He said the firm was also hoping to capitalise on the change in the industry following the collapse of Thomas Cook in 2019.
Last month EasyJet Holidays announced that holidays from Switzerland would launch next year.
The holidays will depart from Geneva, Basel and Zurich airports to more than 70 destinations in Europe.
In addition, EasyJet will launch new routes from Stansted to Geneva and Zurich in December.
The firm will boost its holiday network from Germany later this year.
Mr Wilson said the firm’s Luton location meant it could be difficult to recruit tech-savvy workers, as it was competing against London.
“It isn’t the most attractive place to get digital nomads to come to work,” he said. “It’s quite a hard sell.”
