Take a Seat With Future EasyJet Flights
Budget airline pioneer easyJet confirmed today that it has been considering moving to allocated seating on its cheap flights to Europe and beyond.
Speaking to travel website TTGlive, easyJet chief executive Carolyn McCall said that the case for moving to allocated seating had formed part of the cheap fares carrier's strategic review that was carried out when she took on her role in July. However, she stated that no final decision has been made yet.
"We have done a lot of work on it, but we have not yet made a decision on this. When we have decided, we will let everybody know," Ms McCall said.
She went on to discuss the latest team-up with Lowcost Travel Group. The aim is to create easyJet Holidays – an arm of the company that sells cheap holidays to popular destinations.
"We see a lot of revenue potential over the next three to five years. With a website that has 350 million visitors we should be able to promote easyJet Holidays successfully and get significant conversion rates," Ms McCall predicted.
Meanwhile, rival budget airline Jet2.com has revealed a 38 per cent increase in half-year profits, bringing the total to £38.7 million.
Parent company the Dart Group said that load factors at the cheap flights provider increased to 87.5 per cent over the six months to September. This was up from 81.3 per cent at the same time the previous year.
Jet2.com intends to increase capacity by more than a quarter next summer with a host of new destinations, including cheap flights to Bodrum, Dordogne Valley (Brive) and Hurghada in Egypt.
This winter season has seen a 29 per cent increase in its overall seat capacity. This was partly due to an increased number of cheap flights to Geneva and Salzburg among winter sports enthusiasts and people enjoying city breaks.
Travel Industry News posted by 
on 19 November 2010
