Addressing a media briefing at the Abta Travel Convention on Wednesday (1 November), chief executive Garry Wilson claimed easyJet holidays was now the UK’s “fastest growing tour operator – something we’re hugely proud of”.

“Now we’ve become a major player, I don’t think we want to stop until we’ve become the biggest in the sector,” Wilson said.

He also reiterated easyJet’s plans to turn its holidays arm into £250 million profit business by 2027/28 – more than double the £120m it currently contributes to easyJet’s overall business.

Wilson credited the company’s 250-strong team, some of which have joined from technology organisations as well as other operators, and its “focus on digital processes” for its success. “We want to have the best prices in the market – we can only do that if we’re efficient,” he stressed.

The operator has expanded into Switzerland as a source market, with Germany to follow by the end of the year. “We’ve got the technology to launch from other source markets,” Wilson confirmed.

Wilson also nodded to what he described as likely being an “interesting” turn of year period ahead. “2023 was the first year of the Thomas Cook numbers washing through,” he said.

“It’s going to be interesting to see who’s going to take the volume [this year]. There’s a positive sentiment on how bookings are looking – it’s all to play for.”

Earlier in the event in Bodrum, Wilson cited the trade as an “increasingly important distribution centre” for easyJet holidays. “The relationship we have with travel agents has far exceeded our expectations – I would like to think in terms of that growth, there will be a significant part of that coming from travel agents,” he added.

With technology and AI a major theme of the convention’s agenda, Wilson observed candidly that while travel was good at talking about tech, he himself was unsure he “fully understood” the journey to implementing and utilising new developments.

“What became clear within our sector is that when Airbnb and booking.com came, they came in a surge and took huge amounts of the market – and there wasn’t really the reaction in real time there should have been,” he said, adding that these companies “don’t describe themselves as travel companies, they describe themselves as tech companies within the travel sector – and that’s a very different way of thinking”.

“We need to adopt tech that’s going to take cost out of our business, because a customer’s not going to pay for tour inefficiency and your lack of investment into tech to take cost out,” he observed.

Wilson predicted, with a veiled warning to delegates, a future trend whereby customers go into a shop or visit a website “with a significantly enhanced level of knowledge than you will have, because AI will give them that knowledge”.

“Access to information now is so much easier, so I think that we need to ensure that we have equal or better access to information – and with processes like AI where we’re able to articulate that to customers to add value,” he added.