The operator’s trade business versus direct was pushing 27% in October, head of trade sales Alan Cross told TTG, after dropping as low as 25% during the pandemic. Of this, around 21% is currently non-retail, but Cross expects this to grow to around 23% during peaks and then rest there.

Earlier this year, Jet2holidays appointed Roy Hudson-Evans as its dedicated business development manger for non-retail, who has spent time analysing Jet2’s sales mix.

"We’ve been doing a lot with homeworkers, analysing their booking patterns," said Cross. "In fact, we don’t tend to call it homeworking, we include some call centres in non-retail too. We’re tending to see a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. The whole non-retail side is something we’re really going to focus on supporting."

Cross said his team would spend time drawing up strategic plans for the many different non-retail accounts working with the operator. "The Travel Counsellor model is very different to Holiday Village which is very different to Hays Travel homeworking," Cross continued. "So it’s not as obvious an effort as it might seem at face value. They’ve got different markets and working models, and are based in different parts of the country.

"It’s amazing looking at the density of homeworkers in different parts of the country. In Northern Ireland, non-retail is quite sparse – people like to walk into a shop and buy face-to-face.

"For our Stansted base, a very high proportion of the trade business comes from homeworkers in that catchment – it works down there. It’s not as straightforward as one hat fits all. So for us, it’s about building those separate models for non-retail."

Jet2’s trade business is rebounding against direct in the wake of the pandemic, running calendar year to mid-October at 26%. "But it is pushing 27%," said Cross. "The share dropped to 25% [during Covid] but we are seeing it climb back up."

Cross said the main obstacle to rebuilding trade business was resource, both in terms of the number of agents in the market and the size of the Jet2 trade team. "We’re starting to get more new people coming into the industry, which is refreshing. And they really want to in the industry.

"What it means for us is that we’re having to put the emphasis back on training, giving content, giving support, retraining in some cases. Training on product and destinations, these aren’t things we can take for granted. Training is key. And to do it properly, virtually or face-to-face, you need the resource to pull all that together."

Focusing specifically on non-retail, Cross added: "Of all trade, non-retail is 21%. Personally, I would expect to see that increase to about 23% and rest there, maybe by the end of January, February, March time.

"A lot of these people had second jobs, and some of them are still dabbling. When they’re confident they can give up these roles, that will be more resource that will come back."