Reported on the
BBC Tuesday, 29 August 2006, 22:57 GMT 23:57 UK
Shoppers at discount supermarket chain Lidl will be able to buy flights to Europe along with their groceries.
In what is thought to be a UK first, it is selling flight vouchers at its checkouts to be used on routes operated by Air Berlin. Customers can exchange their £19 voucher for one-way flights worth £69 from Stansted, Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast and Bournemouth. Destinations include Berlin, Copenhagen, Majorca, Milan and Vienna.
The promotion begins on 5 September and lasts for a week, with flights to be booked online within a month and used within six months. Lidl, a German firm which has 390 UK stores, is famed for its pile-it-high and sell-it-cheap tactics, stocking few brand names.
"There's a natural match between a low-cost retailer and a low-cost airline," said Dr Jonathan Reynolds, director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and a Fellow in Retail Marketing at Templeton College, Oxford University.
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