A very critical time for the industry who have managed to confuse the public big time over the last 2 years by swamping travel agents with holidays and their respective brochures up to 2 years ahead.
The fact that the glosseys are released so far ahead means that for folk who have booked already for next summer, all they will lose should they cancel is their small deposit.
The industry has traditionally seen the post-xmas period as the key time to book people on their summer holidays. Should there be unfavourable world circumstance leading up to this date, war, redundancy or uncertainty, then this will hit the charter sector massively. There has been a massive re-organisation already in recent history and the industry will fear the coming months with trepidation.
The plus point about all this is the desire of folk to holiday more than once a year. I guess that if Europe and its hot spots are considered safe then folk will holiday.
The downturn in this industry and the job cuts could possibly be caused by the infiltration of the low-cost carriers into their home territory, so a consolidation by the charters has been on the cards for a while, but lots of people want to be sheparded into their destination so there should be room for both.