The Company, the second largest flight retailer in the world, in June achieved positive year-on-year growth rates in Bookings compared to pre-COVID-19 levels
‘Prime’, the pioneering travel subscription programme, tops 1.2 million subscribers worldwide after growing by over 150,000 new members in just the month of June
eDreams ODIGEO (‘the Company’), one of the world’s largest online travel companies, announced that it has achieved an important threshold during the month of June 2021, with bookings having now surpassed pre-COVID-19 levels.
The Company’s booking levels over the past quarter have shown continuous improvements. The positive evolution in trading is driven by a growing travel market together with the business’ enhanced strategic positioning and increased competitive advantage. The company’s unique customer proposition, combined with an increasing demand for leisure travel as more people are vaccinated and restrictions are eased, is enabling the business to attract more customers and capture market share from its competitors. While Bookings in April were -51% compared to the same period of 2019, the month of May already showed strong improvements, with trading levels reaching a level of activity of -22% compared to pre-pandemic. In June, Bookings improved further to even surpass pre-COVID-19 levels with positive single-digit average growth rate.
Read More: NexTech AR Acquires Self-Service Event Software Platform: Map Dynamics
The average basket value is still 29% below 2019 levels even though trading has rebounded rapidly and is now above pre-COVID-19 levels. Due to restrictions and uncertainties there is a disproportionate amount of consumers booking short haul, with less passengers per booking and thus lower booking value. While the long term outlook for leisure travel is very strong, over the next few months there may still be volatility. It is clear that the pandemic has not affected the desire for leisure travel. However government restrictions continue to change, and normal seasonality patterns are being thrown off. We expect a continuing transition period as vaccination rates increase, potential appearance of virus variants, and governmental restrictions evolve.
eDreams ODIGEO continues to outperform the industry
Throughout the pandemic, eDreams ODIGEO has consistently outperformed against the airline industry, which highlights the strength and adaptability of its business model. The Company now continues to achieve strong growth in market share vs supplier direct bookings due to its better content quality, more comprehensive offer, flexibility and focus on leisure travel.
During fiscal year 2021, eDreams ODIGEO’s overall performance was on average 13 percentage points above that of IATA in Europe. Based on the latest figures available, corresponding to the months of March and April, the Company’s outperformance ahead of supplier direct increased further to 21 and 31 percentage points, respectively.
An unrivalled customer proposition in a growing market
The Company has used the COVID-19 period to improve its strategic positioning and enhance the innovative products and services that it offers to consumers in the 45 markets where it operates globally. This is demonstrated by ‘Prime’, the very first subscription programme ever created in the world of travel, which performed outstandingly despite the challenging market conditions.
After the major milestone announced in late May, when the programme reached one million subscribers, the number of Prime members has continued to grow strongly. In the last month alone, the programme has gained a further 150,000 new Prime subscribers, taking the total to 1.2 million members in June.
The Company is strengthening its strategic positioning amid a context of a recovering and growing travel market. Following the success and acceleration of vaccination programmes across the Company’s core markets, consumer confidence is rebounding at a strong pace. As a result, the pent-up demand that accumulated during the pandemic is now translating into bookings for travel, which is leading the business to see meaningful improvements in its year-on-year trading, now even above pre-pandemic levels from June 2019.
Read More:Â Â Mitel Extends Partner First Commitment with Enhanced Global Partner Program
Dana Dunne, CEO, commented:Â ‘Throughout the pandemic, we have always been certain that the softening in demand for leisure travel was strictly temporary and that the desire to travel remained undiminished, which has led to significant levels of pent-up demand. Our trading update today shows that this accumulated demand for travel is now flourishing strongly, and we are being successful in capturing it after having strengthened even further our strategic positioning and unique customer proposition over the past months. As expected, the acceleration of the vaccination programmes around the world is boosting consumer confidence in travel. Customers are returning to the market and are choosing our brands to do so, and an increasing number of travellers now commit to a long-term relationship with us as subscribers of our unique ‘Prime’ programme.
We have consistently said that we would emerge stronger from this crisis, and we are delivering on this promise. Our outperformance, with such encouraging trading, demonstrates that we are optimally positioned to be a post-pandemic winner. I firmly believe that as a digital first, leisure travel focused business we are ideally placed to continue to go from strength to strength as restrictions ease further and people rediscover the joy of travel for years to come.’
