Easyjet’s CEO Carolyn McCall, speaking at the ITM Intelligence conference in London last week, announced that the budget airline will be trialling a new initiative across three Scottish airports to help attract more business travellers.
The trial will begin following a recent pilot scheme which saw fast-track security become a permanent fixture at Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports for any passengers who purchase speedy boarding with Easyjet, or who have an Easyjet plus card. It will also come as standard for anyone who books through a travel management company (TMC).
Business travellers booking with Easyjet through TMCs already benefit from no booking fees and a check-in hold bag at no extra cost. An additional trial scheme will also be rolled out at Glasgow airport during April.
Easyjet’s commercial manager forScotland, Hugh Aitken said: "Our flights between Scotland and London boast some of the highest percentages of business travellers across our entire network, so we wanted to thank customers for their loyalty.”
Furthermore, to increase the options available to passengers who travel on the busy Scotland to London routes, Easyjet is aiming to improve flight times on the Glasgow to Gatwick service from June 6 by in order to include an early morning option for those travelling to London. Additionally a fourth daily flight between Glasgow and Gatwick will be available from this winter.
These incentives further indicate attempts from the budget airline to court business travellers and travel managers, a move identified by McCall in November last year with the introduction of flexible fares. These were introduced in order to help business travellers avoid costly last-minute cancellation fees or flight changes by giving them a flexible four-week time frame in which to travel as well as the aforementioned incentives, as the low-cost airline looks to emphasise quality of service to TMCs.
The flexible fares are currently only available through business travel agencies, global distribution systems and self booking tools but Easyjet says they will be available through its website later on in the year.
For more information visit easyjet.com.