Holiday bookings have surged and demand has increased after the testing rules for international travel were relaxed, reports BBC.
The Hike in bookings
Jet2 said demand had returned to “around pre-Covid levels”.
The holiday company saw a “huge spike” in bookings, boss Steve Heapy told the BBC, after the government said pre-departure tests for fully vaccinated people would be scrapped.
EasyJet said its bookings rose almost 200% compared to last week, while Tui said it experienced a “strong uptick”.
EasyJet said flights to Spanish destinations Tenerife, Alicante, Malaga and Lanzarote were the most in demand, with bookings for the latter up 427% week on week.
The airline has put about 1.1 million more seats on sale from London Gatwick for summer 2022.
Lockdown Vs Travel industry
Mr Heapy said the Omicron Covid variant had showed that governments should perhaps “bide your time and look at the science a bit before jumping into lockdown”.
“We can’t just jump into lockdowns and further restrictions every time there is a new variant. We have to learn to live with it and hopefully this is the beginning and the end and we can get back to some normality,” he added.
“It’s been very tough for the travel industry. The biggest thing this industry needs is not lots of bailouts from the government, we just need to fly.
“We just need to take people away and we will be profitable, we will be paying tax, contributing to the economy and to do that we need stability.”
The new travel rules
The shake-up in the travel rules was announced by Boris Johnson on Wednesday, following calls from travel firms who said the measures were not effective now that Omicron was spreading widely.
Under the new rules:
- From 04:00 GMT on Friday 7 January, people who are fully vaccinated and those aged under-18 will no longer need to take a test two days before travelling to England from countries outside the UK and the Common Travel Area. On arrival, they will have to take a PCR test but they will no longer have to self-isolate while awaiting the result
- From 04:00 GMT on Sunday 9 January they will only have to take a lateral flow test instead of a PCR test on day two. But this test must be bought from a private test provider – free NHS tests are not allowed
- Unvaccinated passengers will need to continue to take a pre-departure test, PCR tests on day two and day eight, and self-isolate for 10 days
Web traffic and bookings
Alistair Rowland, chief executive of long-haul tour operator Blue Bay Travel, said the day of the rule change announcement was the company’s busiest day for website traffic and booking enquiries in over a year.
“The volume of enquiries received yesterday matched that of January 2020 daily levels, which is something we couldn’t have imagined a month ago, when these testing rules came in and consumer confidence plummeted,” he said.
“Our most popular destination for bookings right now is the Maldives.”
Tour operator Tui said customers had been given the “reassurance” that travel “will once again be easier and more affordable”, but added it had not seen demand return to levels seen before the pandemic.
British Airways searches for holidays on its website increased by nearly 40% compared to last week.
Did you subscribe to our daily Newsletter?
It’s Free! Click here to Subscribe
Source: BBC
