Interview: Dan Fox, managing director, uptoyou.com
Low cost carrier easyjet.com is planning to take a huge chunk of the ski market with its new packages.
The airline has struck a deal with uptoyou.com, formerly known as Beaumont Holidays, which is supplying the accommodation and transfers for the packages.
Chamonix-based Dan Fox, the managing director of uptoyou.com, believes it has only just scratched the service of the market.
“As Beaumont Holidays, we were taking around 2,000 passengers a year and the tie-up with easyJet will make a big difference,” said Fox.
“We’ll triple that figure this year and then triple it again the next year.
“But easyJet claims to carry up to half a million skiers away each year, so we are only just at the tip of the iceberg.
“People are using our holidays for weekend breaks, longer trips, second holidays and we are also getting lots of beginners who want a taste of skiing.”
Holidaymakers can choose to fly on any day and then book a package around that in over 50 resorts across France, Austria, Italy, Spain and Switzerland.
They can choose a fully serviced trip or just accommodation and make their own arrangements for transfer.
“The sequence tends to be that people book their easyJet flights and then come to us and ask if we can find them a package around that,” said Fox.
“We will find them something suitable and then offer them an option on it for 24 hours.”
Fox is a veteran of the ski industry, having worked for Thomson and Neilson and admits that providing flexible holidays has been “operationally challenging.”
“The big operators tend to welcome thousands of people on a Saturday, which is also difficult,” he said.
With easyJet claiming to offer the lowest flights on the market and two-star accommodation available from around £90 for three nights in Chamonix, uptoyou.com is claiming to undercut rivals.
But it is also offering a level of service that is not often associated with low-cost airlines.
Uptoyou.com package holidaymakers are taken to and from the slopes in minibuses and the company will even reserve restaurant tables for its customers.
“It is definitely helping us to achieve repeat bookings. My favourite letters are from people who say they have never experienced this level of service,” said
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