Global connections

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Worldwide by easyJet is the first global airline connections service by a European low-cost carrier. Speaking in October, ancillary revenue director and lead on the project Andrew Middleton explained the rationale behind the new service

Norwegian, Westjet and Gatwick Connects (an airport booking service that lets passengers seamlessly book connecting flights with different airlines in a single transaction) were the launch partners for Worldwide by easyJet back in September and the airline has since announced further expansion as it seeks to reach a new segment of the market.

What is the reasoning behind the launch of Worldwide by easyJet?

Worldwide by easyJet is a new connections service offering easyJet customers three new options: connecting an easyJet flight to a partner airline flight (using GatwickConnects), connecting two easyJet flights (again using GatwickConnects) and thirdly, selling stand-alone tickets for partner airlines with complementary networks.

easyJet has leadership positions at more of Europe’s major airports and flies on more of Europe’s 100 largest routes than any other airline, which makes it the most attractive European short-haul airline not currently providing connectivity. On top of that, we have over 350 million visits to our website every year, making easyJet.com one of Europe’s most visited travel websites. The introduction of this new disruptive product opens up a new 70 million market segment for easyJet.

Legacy airlines have traditionally offered connectivity through costly and complex interline and codeshare agreements; with Worldwide by easyJet these will be replicated by self-connect and sales partnerships through a digital, virtual hub which will offer the same sort of connectivity but more simply and efficiently.

How successful has it been so far and can you give figures to support this?

We know there is a real customer demand for making flight connections with easyJet easier. 200,000 passengers already self-connect in Gatwick alone. That’s about 1% of easyJet passengers at the airport and that doesn’t include those connecting between easyJet and other airlines’ flights. By putting popular airlines together in one place and making the booking process as easy as possible, we believe customers will like the service and choose to book through it.

Since launch, we have been pleased with the growth in the volume of customers choosing to book their flights through Worldwide by easyJet. We’re seeing a good mix of easyJet-to-easyJet connections as well as easyJet-to-partner-airline connections. Lots of the bookings are for the routes we had expected, for example customers in Jersey connecting at Gatwick, but we’ve also seen demand from routes that just aren’t being served by traditional airlines – for example, customers travelling from the Greek Islands to Spain.

We expect volumes to continue to grow once ‘Worldwide’ itineraries are integrated into easyJet’s main search tool and once we go live with Google Flights – both initiatives are planned for the coming months.

What’s in it for the industry as a whole – how does the launch of this product move aviation forward?

Our partner airlines clearly recognise the opportunity that Worldwide by easyJet represents. This is best highlighted by the rapid enrolment of four new partner airlines in the two weeks following our initial launch. The discussions for each of those new partnerships were initiated and concluded in the two weeks between our initial launch and the announcement of those partnerships. This demonstrates the attractiveness and simplicity of the model.

We expect to make further announcements about partner airlines and airports in the coming weeks and months.

Is there a possibility of working in partnership with legacy airlines and their alliances in the future?

We continue to speak with a number of other airlines from the Middle East and Far East amongst many others and also to airports around Europe. We are open-minded about forming partnerships with like-minded airlines, be they LCC or otherwise. There’s a clear model and providing the partner offers a complementary fit with that model, we will be open to working together.

You signed up four new partners in September; can you give details of any more that will be coming on board soon?

We were delighted to welcome Neos, Aurigny, La Compagnie and Corsair to join Loganair as distribution partner airlines – tickets for these airlines will be available via easyJet’s website in the coming weeks. Aurigny will also provide Channel Island connections via Gatwick, which we are sure will prove as popular with Guernsey’s residents and visitors as easyJet self-connections have for Jersey.

We continue to speak with a number of other airlines inside and outside of Europe for both connectivity and distribution partnership opportunities.

What impact (if any) does the new product have on the handling side of things, whether landside or airside? Could it lead to more consolidation among handlers, for instance? Or might it require handlers to alter their processes in any way?

Worldwide by easyJet won’t impact on easyJet’s punctuality, its asset utilisation or operating model. The airline will not hold flights for connecting passengers; this is because Worldwide by easyJet is currently subject to a 2-hour 30-minute minimum connection time, which will give customers plenty of time to transfer between flights and/or terminals. Should a passenger miss a connecting flight they will be transferred to the next available flight thanks to the GatwickConnects product.

Worldwide by easyJet works with the GatwickConnects service. Through this service, customers collect their luggage from their arriving flight and go to the GatwickConnects desk in baggage reclaim. Their bags are taken and loaded onto the next flight, then customers exit through Customs, head straight to security using Fast Track, and go through to the departure lounge for their next flight.

We will continue to work with our partners (both airline and airport) to optimise the Worldwide by easyJet customer experience.

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