Jet2holidays and the newly created Ryanair Holidays will be introducing villa packages from summer 2018 and 2017 respectively.
Ryaniar’s plans were announced in Palma this week by the head of sales and marketing Ryanair Spain, Jose Espartero.
The new holiday wing of the airline will be specialising in five star hotels and top of the range villas in Majorca for the UK, German and Irish markets.
Espartero explained that Ryanair Holidays will be offering the whole package, flights, accommodation and transfers in their destinations and contracts have been closed with Majorcan hoteliers and also a receiving agent which will take care of Ryanair clients on the ground.
And, Jet2 is going to follow suit. Jet2holidays already offers hotel packages in Majorca but the company is also moving into the villa and holiday rental market.
Resort reps
Head of product Zoe Towers said that the packages will include car hire as standard and holidaymakers will have access to reps by appointment.
It will start with a portfolio of around 600 villas, most of which will be in popular destinations such as Majorca, Minorca, mainland Spain and the Algarve, and there are plans to grow the range in the future.
Jet2 Holidays’ £60 deposit will also be available on the villas product, which will tie into its existing flights from its airline’s nine UK bases.
Towers, who said Jet2 had been exploring the idea for a couple of years, added: “It’s taking the concept of a package holiday and applying it to villas.
Right partners
“We knew we wanted to introduce villas but we wanted to make sure it was with the right partners.
“It needed to be partners with good quality stock that meets health and safety requirements and high levels of customer service.” The decision by the two operators to move into the rental market is a clear indication in the increase in popularity of villa and self catering holidays, a sector which the Balearic authorities are struggling to get a grip of by introducing new regulations which they hope will be in place in time for next summer.
However, there is still opposition from the tourist industry.