Online travel agent (OTA) Loveholidays has set its sights on doubling its pre-pandemic business this year after recent Atol data showed the brand had increased its 2023 licence by more than a million passengers compared with 2019.
The OTA is licensed to carry nearly 2.5 million passengers (2,448,261) from the UK this year, up a third on 2022 (1,854,038) and 78% (1,374,812) on its pre-pandemic licence.
When combined with its business in Ireland, the company will book more than three million passengers to go on holiday this year – more than double the number it served in 2019.
Donat Retif, chief executive of loveholidays, told TTG Loveholidays – which is now the UK’s third largest Atol holder behind Jet2holidays and Tui – had reaped the benefits of investing during the pandemic.
"Thanks to the support of our suppliers, we offer our customers easy access to tens of thousands of hotels at great prices, empowering them to find the best option for their needs and, importantly, their budget," he said.
"We invested significantly in our technology platform during the pandemic, making it the quickest and most flexible in the market, and have worked hard to offer competitive deposit and payment options, which is so important in the current economic climate."
The news comes as loveholidays plans to increase its headcount by 45% this financial year, creating 110 new jobs to enable it to expand into new markets, diversify its product offering and bolster its customer service team.
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