EasyJet Plans New Website To Boost Sales

EasyJet has plans to redesign its website within the next year in order to increase sales. The new site will make use of existing web 2.0 technologies to ensure that customers can not only book their flights on easyJet.com but also plan their complete holiday itineraries. EasyJet head of application architecture, Paul Curtis, said that the new website would help easyJet become a complete travel planning destination for customers rather than just acting as a cheap flights booking engine:

"Only 40% of visitors to the site know when and where they are travelling. So if they find it difficult to find the ideal flight and hotel in combination, the remaining 60% will go elsewhere”. 

In turn, Curtis believes that the site, to be released sometime next year, will generate more revenue for easyJet because of the enhanced features. Amongst other developments, easyJet.com will allow users customers to specify their dates of travel, showing a map which will change as preferences are altered. EasyJet is to also welcome external applications onto its new site including Microsoft Virtual Earth, a feature that will mean site users can explore their chosen holiday destinations in greater detail than ever before. It is also expected that sites such as TripAdvisor will supply additional data for easyJet as the low cost airline looks to increase the amount of information it can provide customers in one visit. 

Paul Curtis added: "The real value is in the external data we can consume and relay to our customers. We are looking to build an architecture where we hold less data locally and only access what we need over the internet on an on-demand basis, when our customers need it". One challenge for easyJet and their new interface will be to build a new platform in order to cope with not only the expected increase in traffic but also to help load larger web pages on the website.