Easyjet are GO!!!!!!

Well its taken years in the making but Easyjet are finally flying to Zakynthos all be it from Gatwick and 1 flight a day on a Fri, Sun and Mon.

This is great news but lets not get to over excited about this. Thats 444 - 720 seats per week depending on which aircraft they use, some seats will be very cheap agreed but they do up prices when less become available. Also these seats will be used by people who already visit the island independantly and will now use Easyjet instead of tour companies flights, people will use them for weekend breaks, one way flights, some not bought at all and only about 15% of tourists to the island book direct with the hotels/apt. For some this will be alot cheaper but for others it won't make much difference so its all swings and roundabouts. If they flew out of season i for one would use them but at the moment it looks like its just season time from 21st May. We have to also think that this is 444- 720 people for the whole of the island so it won't show an instant impact until more UK airports are added to the island but Gatwick is a good start.

What the island really needs is for the major tour companies to lower their prices, 85% use tour companies and those 85% will continue to use them as its peace of mind having everything in one package not having to combine hotels with dates of flights, transfers and if something goes wrong your on your own through not going with a tour company and having a rep to help you.

In 2008 i read a news report in a greek paper saying that tourism was down by 22% on the island from the highest ever year that saw 75,000 people visit Zakynthos, so thats a loss of 16,500 tourists in 2008 and 2009 was more again. So the island needs a huge boost in tourism from the tour companies and Easyjet is a step in the right direction, hopefully! It could always go the other way with tour companies pulling out of hotels. We can only wait and see.

I'm just being realistic in writing this topic.