EasyJet has signed preferred deals with "a number of
corporates," including modest discounts based on marketshare improvements for
some clients and soft benefits for others, U.K. market director Paul Simmons
told BTN. EasyJet, which launched on
the low-cost carrier model in 1995 and now claims to be the biggest airline in
the United Kingdom, has embarked on a concerted strategy during the past 18
months to win more business passengers, who typically pay higher fares.
"We are willing to have discussions with corporate customers to
find a win-win," Simmons added. "Our profit margin is £4 per seat, so
we do not have a huge amount of money to play with, but it is all geared around
growth and a higher share. However, business travelers save money by using us
in preference to other carriers on 80 percent of
occasions, so a lowest-reasonable fare on the day policy is where they can make
the biggest savings, and we are therefore helping to encourage that with enhanced
levels of customer support."
EasyJet also announced this week that it signed a preferred agreement
with Flight Centre Group's FCm Travel Solutions and Corporate Traveller travel
management divisions. Simmons said easyJet already has deals with two other
unnamed TMCs and there are "more in the pipeline." The TMC deals, he
said, essentially are "sales and marketing agreements. We aren't a legacy
carrier and we never want to be, so our way of talking with TMCs is slightly
different."