But, there are concerns that the pent up demand could spark an increase in flight prices, despite more seats being made available to not only Majorca but also other popular holiday destinations in the western Mediterranean. Industry sources have reported that Easter and summer holidays are flying off the shelves.
And now that travel tests have been scrapped in most popular holiday destinations for fully jabbed Britons, booking a trip is the easiest it has been since the pandemic began.
And, travel agents have said that pricing is not putting customers off booking Easter breaks as agents eye their first meaningful income for two years. The trade reported “astronomical” prices for flights, despite Jet2 and easyJet last week adding more than 100,000 seats to destinations in Spain and Portugal to meet surging demand.
On the Beach Group, for example, has reported “a significant strengthening of traffic and booking volumes” since the lifting of UK travel restrictions on February 11.
In a trading update in advance of its annual general meeting yesterday, the online retailer said it has seen sales up 50% against 2019 levels in the four weeks to February 23.
Before the emergence of the Omicron variant in November, the group’s sales in September and October exceeded 2019 levels – the last full financial year not affected by Covid.
On the Beach said the restrictions brought in to tackle the Omicron variant “heavily impacted” sales in November, December and early January – but sales returned to 2019 levels on January 13.
And, the surge in demand for Majorcan holidays this year is already being seen on the ground in Majorca with many more hoteliers opening earlier than usual and some five times more hotels being open this April than there were during the same period last year.
And also yesterday, Spanish travel booking group Amadeus posted a second consecutive profitable quarter since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, helped by stronger demand as travel curbs were partly phased out.
The world’s biggest provider of travel booking services said it has seen steady volume growth throughout 2021, with the number of travellers improving, especially in Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, but still far below pre-pandemic levels.
“Looking at the year ahead, we remain cautiously optimistic about the recovery in travel,” chief executive Luis Maroto said in a statement.
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A bit late, but a few more tourists wont hurt. Magaluf will be happy with a few more quid.