Discounted travel …. members of armed forces to benefit

A new partnership with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will see easyJet offer discounts on excess baggage charges to military personnel. easyJet charges £18 per additional case when booking online and charges at the airport check-in desk can be higher.

Excess baggage was identified as an important need among members of the Armed Forces as they often travel with large amounts of luggage, including kit bags.

The new partnership between the MoD and easyJet is the first of its kind with low-cost carriers and given the economic pressure on the military, similar deals are expected in the future. Lt Colonel Mike Holmes, Head of Defence Travel, said that “today’s new partnership represents an excellent opportunity to drive out more efficiencies through smarter procurement”.

easyJet hopes to secure travel deals with other Government departments as well as with private sector companies.

“This new partnership will deliver huge benefits and cost savings for the Ministry of Defence, who in this current economic climate are under enormous pressure to deliver savings for the taxpayer,” said Carolyn McCall, easyJet’s Chief Executive.

“easyJet’s aim is to make travel easy and affordable and this new partnership is the first of what we hope will be a series of deals with public and private organisations secured by easyJet’s new corporate sales force.”

easyJet expects to carry more than 50,000 MoD passengers a year. Popular destinations include Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Gibraltar and Larnaca.

The airline flies more than 580 routes between 129 airports in 29 countries.

The carrier claims that 300 million Europeans live within one hour’s drive of an easyJet airport, more than any other airline. EasyJet is to offer summer seats from London Southend Airport from April 2012, with flights available to Amsterdam, Alicante, Barcelona, Belfast, Faro, Ibiza, Malaga and Mallorca.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 at 10:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.