Broadway Travel to target consortium growth and repeat bookings after tough 2018

Around 1,500 Broadway Travel clients were caught up in the Monarch failure last October at a cost of around £150,000 to the business in revenue. Weeks later, Broadway was drafted in by the CAA to pick up the pieces following the collapse of A1 Travel.

According to the Air Travel Trust’s 2018 annual report, the cost to the fund of A1’s failure ran to around £4.5 million. However, it further states that Broadway’s intervention significantly benefited the trust and consumers.

MORE: Broadway Travel reaps rewards of more engaged database post-GDPR

Addressing delegates at the 2018 Broadway Travel conference in Dubrovnik on Monday (October 15), chief operating officer Jill Mitchell said the company’s spike in net profit was all the more remarkable considering the fallout from Monarch and A1, which came before a “challenging” year of regulatory change, a record equalling summer heatwave and the rare spectacle of England making a World Cup semi final - the first time in nearly 30 years.

“It’s been an erratic year,” said Mitchell. “We had our best January ever followed by our worst February ever. These ups and downs - there has been no real pattern. It makes it really hard to find out what we did well - or not.”

The result, Mitchell revealed, was a 33% increase in net profit, fuelled primarily by an increase in profit margin. Total transaction value in 2018 amounted to £174 million, down from £181 million in 2017. Gross profit, meanwhile, declined a shade from £14.8 million to £14.3 million.

“Our plan was to increase margins this year,” said Mitchell. “Gross margins have continued to go up. Net profit is up 33% on last year. We are absolutely thrilled.”

MORE: Hugh Morgan to stand down from Broadway Travel board

A significant success, said Mitchell, was the growth in Broadway’s repeat business, now at 44%, up from 28% just three years ago. “This is probably the one we are most proud of,” said Mitchell. “We’ve made a huge stride.”

Reflecting on the collapse of A1, Mitchell said with around 6,000 passengers affected by the failure, it was a “big compliment” to Broadway when the CAA asked the business to step in and take on affected A1 bookings.