BRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov. 6, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Today, Virgin Express (Euronext Brussels:VIRE) (OTCBB:VIRGY) recorded its 1,000,000th internet booking of 2003. The sales figures of the Belgian low fare carrier show that the internet has become its dominant distribution channel. At present, 55% of Virgin Express seats are sold through the net, whereas in the year 2002 the share of the internet sales accounted for only 29%. Virgin Express remains the largest internet retailer in the Benelux.
Virgin Express has two internet sales tools. Skylights is the booking engine for travellers who want to book directly. SkyAgent is the internet booking tool that is especially designed for the travel trade industry. The statistics show that the on-line booking tools have become far more important distribution channels than either the call centre or the Global Distribution Systems (GDS).
During the first 10 months of 2003 Virgin Express sold 985,308 seats over the internet, an increase of 85.9% over to the web sales during the same period last year.
Call Centre Internet
Direct Travel agents Subtotal SkyLights
Jan-Oct 02 335,461 498,611 834,072 511,241
Jan-Oct 03 276,408 377,435 653,843 878,28
Change (%) -17.6 -24.3 -21.6 71.8
GDS Total
SkyAgent Subtotal
Jan-Oct 02 18,876 530,117 411,826 1,776,015
Jan-Oct 03 107,028 985,308 460,238 2,099,389
Change (%) 467.0 85.9 11.8 18.2
In October 2003, 54.9 % of the total seats sold were booked through the web. About 23.5% of the reservations came via the call centre and 21.6% was booked via through GDS.
The Virgin Express website now welcomes more than 25,600 unique visitors a day. The looker-to-booker rate is at present 5.3%.
Virgin Express expects this year's e-commerce turnover to reach EUR 60 million. In 2002 the total websales turnover was EUR 42.9 million.
Internet Booking (1998-2003)
1998 24178 1999 110222 2000 292310 2001 341817 2002 649400 Jan-Oct 2003 985308
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