Holiday bookings surge in UK after lockdown exit plans revealed

Airlines and travel companies have reported a surge in holiday bookings after UK prime minister Boris Johnson announced his roadmap out of lockdown.

EasyJet, Ryanair, Tui and Thomas Cook reported a jump in bookings to destinations including Spain and Greece after the prime minister said international trips could potentially resume from 17^th May, subject to review and assuming there was no resurgence in coronavirus and vaccination programmes went well.

EasyJet said flight bookings from the UK jumped 337% and package holiday bookings surged 630% compared with a week earlier, with Málaga, Alicante and Palma in Spain, Faro in Portugal and the Greek island of Crete among the top destinations. August breaks are the most popular, followed by July and September.

Johan Lundgren, EasyJet chief executive, said, “We have consistently seen that there is pent-up demand for travel and this surge in bookings shows the signal from the government that it plans to reopen travel has been what UK consumers have been waiting for.”

Meanwhile yacht charter and brokerage companies have explained how they are expecting a busy season of charters. As countries in the Mediterranean begin to open their boarders and lift restrictions, there is a growing sense that this travel surge will positively impact the yachting industry.

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