Travel with Katie Butler: 2024 travel industry round-up

The late booking trend also continued and we enjoyed a good mix of early bookings and last-minute ones too. It was also a year of little disruption, especially compared to the last few years-let’s hope 2025 brings much of the same.

2024 wrapped up – industry month by month round-up.

January: For the second year running we enjoyed our busiest January to date since opening way back in 2013 at our first branch in Heckmondwike.

February: It snowed but thankfully our customers were not impacted severely and most managed to get off to their chosen destination, albeit with minor delays.

March: Volcanic eruptions again in Iceland and although holidays went ahead many were unable to experience the Blue Lagoon as planned. March marked four years since the EU announced a 30-day ban on all but essential travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Annual Holiday Money Report from Post Office Travel Money Service revealed that the Algarve in Portugal had over-taken Marmaris in Turkey and Sunny Beach in Bulgaria to become the short-haul European destination offering UK holidaymakers the best value for money for summer 2024.

April: Passport fees rose again for the second time in just 14 months.

May: Three was the magic number and we took the plunge and opened our third shop in the busy town of Brighouse. The Greek Island of Skiathos experienced adverse weather conditions for the second year running and we dealt with flight delays and cancellations.

June: Technical issues at Manchester Airport as serious power cut impacted both terminal 1 and 2 and thousands of customers were temporarily stranded in resort or at the airport. Rumours around the re-opening of Doncaster airport showed promise.

July: Global IT issues again this time with card payment systems causing disruption at airports and indeed in-store. European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) was delayed again until spring 2025.

August: Manchester Airport recorded its busiest July on record with 3.2m passengers, up 6.2 per cent on last July. Summer 2026 holidays (two years ahead) were launched earlier than ever before.

September: Jet2.com & Jet2holidays were named as the UK’s largest tour operator and in the same week were also awarded with the coveted European Airline of the Year award. Total Travel Ossett celebrates its first birthday.

October: ABTA’s new Holiday Report 2024-2025 reported that the proportion of holidaymakers booking with a travel agent had risen by four per cent to 38 per cent.

November: Jet2holidays, Easyjet Holidays and TUI all reported massive growth versus 2023 with projections for the 2025 season up even more. A bidder was confirmed for the battle to re-open Doncaster Airport.

December: We celebrated huge success in our Mission Christmas Cash For Kids toy appeal with our biggest collection ever.