Low cost carriers announce new routes to Europe

All of the 'Low cost' carriers are focusing on the lucrative winter sports market and EasyJet, one of Europe’s leading low-fares airline, this week launched a new twice daily service to Zurich, with fares from just £27.99 each way. The airline expects to carry more than 160,000 passengers on the route over the next 12 months say Paul Cable, EasyJet’s UK Market Manager.

'Whilst Zurich is a great gateway for local ski resorts such Laax and Engelberg don't forget that with a mainline train station at the airport it's easy to hop onto a train to some of the best resorts in the world including my favourite, St Anton says Paul Quigley from the specialist ski agency www.worldski.com

These new routes come hot on the heels of new routes and major ski campaigns from Ryanair, Flybe and Jet2.com. Ryanair have in particular have been very aggressive with their early ski marketing by launching a dedicated ski website and advertising their winter ski destinations in the national by press offering free ski carriage.

Many however are using the low cost carriers for weekends trips and don't really understand the problems faced when trying to secure accommodation. Mike Pritchard, Holiday Manager at Worldski understands the problem well as he deals with customers in his Leeds city centre call centre.

' The winter season is short, normally 16-18 weeks' says Mike and accommodation providers need to maximise the occupancy in those rooms. 'They love the 7 night, Saturday to Saturday bookings' he says ' and many properties will only take these kind of bookings' Weekend travellers however are only there for a couple of days and typically like to travel Friday to Monday which breaks this Saturday, Saturday rule.' That's where I come in' says Mike. The team here at Worldski have tremendous experience in this market and can advise which suppliers will deal with weekend stay or odd durations.


Paul@Worldski