When I was approached to join easyJet as Chief Executive Officer of its holiday division back in 2018, I immediately jumped at the chance. I saw an opportunity to create a serious player in the holiday market and to be part of a brand which is loved by millions, as well as having an enviable position in the industry.
We launched the business in November 2019 before taking our first customers away in January 2020. It was a big deal for the team who had spent months preparing to deliver brilliant holidays.
However, almost as soon as we were sending people away, we were figuring out how to bring them home again as the Covid-19 pandemic started taking hold on Europe.
We operated our first year against the backdrop of the biggest challenge our industry has ever faced.
Of course, once travel was permitted again it wasn’t a straightforward landscape to navigate, with traffic light systems, testing and Omicron still posing huge challenges for travel companies.
When we eventually saw a full easing of all restrictions in Spring 2022, we were finally all systems go!
We delivered our first fully operational summer two and half years after we launched, and it was clear the appetite for travel was well and truly back. We took 1.1 million customers away and delivered £38 million before tax in our first fully operational year. Being a team of just 150 people, this felt like a huge achievement, which was all the more worth celebrating after the challenging start we’d faced.
Now that travel as we know and love it is back and we know there is still pent up demand, we’re totally focused on becoming Europe’s most loved holiday company. Due to the scale of the airline’s network, our growth isn’t constrained and considering current levels of demand, we now expect to see growth of circa 50 per cent on last year.
It’s ambitious, but we’re currently Europe’s fastest growing tour operator and are set on growing the business to be one of the largest players in Europe in the foreseeable future. It's incredibly exciting both to us and to our investors.
Sustainability is key
We know from our own research that to over 70 per cent of holidaymakers, sustainability is an important factor when booking a holiday. We therefore want sustainability to be part of our everyday culture, enabling us, our partners, and our customers to make a positive impact on the environment and local communities that make our destinations so special.
Longer term, our mission is to make sustainable holidays mainstream and to lead the industry in doing this.
For travel companies to make real progress in sustainable travel, there needs to be strong collaboration between all stakeholders – industry, communities, as well as national and local authorities and the third sector - particularly since sustainable tourism can offer real advantages over other industrial sectors for developing economies.
Where we can control the controllable we are – our airline has recently announced its new net zero roadmap. We’re therefore focusing our efforts on what we can do beyond that.
Since we launched our sustainability strategy in 2021, we’ve worked with the Travel Foundation on a unique destination stewardship approach and bringing together more than just the usual stakeholders to tackle tourism issues.
We launched a landmark partnership with the University of Oxford to create the easyJet holidays Sustainable Tourism Programme, looking at tackling some of the big sustainable tourism challenges.
We’re working really closely with our hotel partners on the work that they are doing in this space and encouraging certification to a Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) recognised standard. We also recently launched our new ‘eco-certified’ collection.
We’re still on a journey, but we were delighted to win the ‘Sustainable Future’ award at The Globes Travel Awards in January.
Innovation is in our DNA
As part of easyJet, innovation is in our DNA. We have best in class technology for seamless customer experiences, built from scratch and with a selection of tools which power both customer facing and back office processes. And because we’re still so young, there is no ‘but we’ve always done it this way’.
I’m a huge believer that every individual in our business brings value, and I strongly encourage the entire team to bring their ideas to the table because we’re agile enough to keep trialling and testing new initiatives, some of which may not work for us but many of which are making us better every day.
We’re lucky to have recruited not only the best people from across travel, but specialists from a range of industries that bring their expertise to help us succeed day in, day out. Listening to everyone’s ideas, being experimental and constantly looking at ways to improve is, for me, how to best encourage innovation.
Lessons from the pandemic
Travel, of course, suffered more disproportionally than other sectors due to the worldwide lockdowns. It had to adapt quicker than most which, for an industry that is very regimented, created many learnings, not least the importance of offering flexibility and putting the customer first.
I think it also accelerated digital transformation, needing to adapt to advancements that were made in technology during the pandemic, and being agile and resourceful had never been more important.
Travel is, and has always been, a resilient industry, which is why so many travel companies and tour operators have been able to come out the other side and thrive. But I think we are now all far more adaptable than we were before.
The future of travel
I’m pleased to say the future is very bright. We’re still seeing pent up demand for travel and, following two years of missed opportunities, consumers are prioritising holidays. Despite the increased cost of living, we’ve recently seen record-breaking sales days.
That said, it’s absolutely key for tour operators to demonstrate the quality of their products to prove they are worth paying for, so we expect demand will continue with great value playing a more key role than ever.
Read more about Garry’s career path since graduating, his advice for current students and alumni, and the importance of building a great team.