The head of easyJet holidays, Garry Wilson, has seen no sign of a downturn in customers’ desire to travel and holiday. So he appears particularly optimistic about 2025, following an excellent 2024. While, among the “leading” destinations remains, as in 2024, Greece, according to him.
“We say goodbye to 2024 very happy and head into 2025 continuing on a path of growth,” said the CEO.
According to easyJet holidays figures, the company is targeting 2.5 million customers this year, up 30% on last year, and a profit of £180 million. While, for 2025, the target is 3 million customers.
“In terms of trends, we don’t see any reduction – the number of overnight stays remains the same and the top destinations continue to be Spain, Greece and Turkey,” Wilson said.
According to him, over 70% of customers are still booking four and five star hotels and over 60% are booking all-inclusive.
Mr Wilson said that bookings for 2025 are “very strong” and that a third of the planned capacity for next year has, already, been sold.
“In terms of early booking, we had a particular advantage as our customers could book on the easyJet website 90 days before their trip,” said the head of easyJet holidays.
Early booking and 2025
This trend of early bookings is also apparent in families in 2025. For this year’s holidays, families delayed booking, resulting in higher prices and not finding what they wanted. So for 2025, they are booking much earlier.
Meanwhile, the company is seeing a rebound for North Africa, both in winter and summer.
As Mr Wilson said, easyJet is “excited” about new destinations such as Skiathos, Tromso in Norway and cruises to Luxor on the Nile. “Bookings are going very well for Krakow and Prague, for example, possibly replacing some areas in Iceland that have slowed down a bit,” he added.
Change of CEO
For his part, Kenton Jarvis, who takes over from Johan Lundgren as CEO of easyJet, has pledged to continue the low-cost airline’s mission.
“My appointment as CEO was a continuity plan as I already had a strategic CFO role and helped prepare our strategy three years ago,” he said.
“We set targets at the time, achieved them a year ago and then set new ones. I see my role as helping to execute that strategy and achieve those medium-term goals. My sole purpose is to make low-cost travel easier, both for customers and for colleagues. After all, according to him, this is why easyJet was created.” That is our focus and we will do everything we can to achieve it,” added Mr Jarvis.
Johan Lundgren, the outgoing CEO, added: “We are very confident and have a huge number of opportunities to exploit.”
