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May 2008
EasyJet consigns traditional package holiday to dustbin of history
(Phil Davies from Travelmole)
EasyJet is making a major assault on traditional package operators by launching a holidays arm.
EasyJetHolidays will offer Travel Trust Association protection, giving consumers the ability to create personalised holidays based on the budget carrier's 900 flights a day to 75 destinations combined with more than 10,000 hotels across Europe.
The carrier claimed the new venture consigns the traditional European package holiday "to the dustbin of history".
EasyJetHolidays are protected by the Travel Trust Association. By booking flights and hotels together as a single package, the company claims to be offering "100% refund protection" in the event of a cancelled flight or disrupted hotel booking.
The initiative will put further pressure on mainstream operators and agents offering fixed duration holidays and online holiday providers who can only offer the flights on low-fare airlines by daily "screen-scraping" and, in some cases, adding a booking surcharge of up to 15, according to the airline.
"Travellers won't find any travel agents' commissions, fuel surcharges or the booking mark-ups on easyJet flights added by the likes of lastminute.com," a statement said. "Perennially-unpopular features such as compulsory seven-nights stays, the holiday 'sales rep' or 'accommodation allocated upon arrival' are absent from easyJetHolidays."
A price promise guarantee on all easyJetHolidays is being offered, with a claim that consumer won't find cheaper prices on the web.
Users can access a new website through www.easyJet.com or go direct to www.easyJetHolidays.com.
Similar launches are planned across Europe in Germany, France, Holland, Italy and Spain.
The airline's chief executive Andy Harrison said: "Package holidays offered through travel agents and tour operators have developed a deserved reputation for everything that is bad about travel – fixed-term holidays in shabby hotels allocated on arrival with flights at the most inconvenient times on some of Europe's least-known airlines. No wonder they are a thing of the past.
"easyJetHolidays is redefining holidays by enabling travellers, for the first time, to combine flights on any of easyJet's 298 routes with over 10,000 hotels across Europe to create their own easily-bookable holiday combinations in a single place.
"There are no middlemen, no 7-night stays, no dodgy "sales-reps" or any of the things that really annoy the independent, savvy traveller.
"easyJet has completely revolutionised the short-haul air market over the course of the last decade and we are now targeting what remains of the travel agent and tour operator business in Europe. Today really does mark the end of the European 'package holiday' as we knew it."