EasyJet Holidays has begun selling its packages through independent travel agents as part of a soft launch.
The operator has rolled out its product to “a handful of initial partners” after relaunching in November.
Around 3000 agents will have access to easyJet Holidays by early September and a new trade portal has been developed.
During its preparations to launch, the company said it had hosted more than 3000 agents on webinars and run partner days earlier in the year.
EasyJet Holidays will be supporting the trade with social media marketing assets, customer emails, in-store window displays and screens, and partner websites.
Agencies already signed up to sell the operator include Hays Travel, Travel Counsellors, The Travel Network Group, Advantage Travel Partnership and Midcounties Co-operative Travel.
EasyJet Holidays said it had been “committed to working with the travel trade since its inception” and while its intended launch date was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, it believed the “difficult environment” faced by the industry meant its launch was “an even more welcome move and a rare piece of good news at the current time”.
Chief executive Garry Wilson said: "It’s always been really important to us to work with the trade and it’s something we’ve been absolutely committed to even though we’ve had a couple of unfortunate timings setbacks.
“We recognise the fantastic job they do and know that they will be able to attract a different type of customer to consider and choose an easyJet holiday. For launch we’ll have materials in more than 1800 shop windows in some key regions across the UK. And we think that now more than ever customers will be looking to their trusted travel agents to help with holiday bookings.
“We look forward to welcoming all of our partners on board and working together to make this a great success.”
Si Morris-Green, head of distribution, added: “It’s really exciting to be starting to launch with a fantastic range of trade partners. We’ve worked really hard to bring this to life and we think everyone we’re working with represents the full breadth and depth of the trade sector and it covers high street and homeworkers too.
“We’ve put a lot in to our communications and invested a lot of time in our agents – they’ve been taking part in dedicated webinars and we hosted a series of successful agent partner days earlier in the year. We can’t wait to continue this ongoing support with a new dedicated trade team.”