BY TIM HEDGLEY, GROUP TRAVEL EDITOR
Europe’s leading airline easyJet is teaming up with award-winning children’s weekly newspaper First News, to offer two months’ free subscription for all its UK passengers flying this half term, to help keep young flyers entertained and engaged during their travels.
Thousands of families are set to jet off with easyJet during the February half-term, with Spain, Switzerland, France, and Italy proving to be among the most popular destinations for a spring family break.
To help make travel easy for parents and children alike, the airline and First News are teaming up to offer a free two-month subscription to the digital edition.
Fun to read and providing access to factual, impartial news and entertainment expertly written by award-winning journalists, First News will take younger travellers on a virtual trip round the world with every read, inspiring conversation, fuelling curiosity and sparking debate.
Jam-packed with age-appropriate articles, eye-catching photos and bursting with interviews, boredom-busting puzzles, games and competitions it promises to engage and entertain, however long the flight.
Between 7th February and 28th February, all UK customers flying with easyJet will have the opportunity to enjoy a free two-month digital subscription to the weekly newspaper.
Passengers will be able to get access to their free two-month subscription via details in easyJet’s digital inflight Traveller Magazine as well as on selected boarding cards, meaning passengers can download First News before take-off on their personal devices and get access to the latest issue to enjoy onboard their flight.
The collaboration comes following research from the charity, National Literacy Trust*, which found that 3 in 10 children and young people are reading daily in their free time, the lowest it has been since the beginning of the pandemic.
easyJet has long championed reading for young travellers, encouraging children to get hooked on a book as part of its three-year summer flying library the ‘Flybrary’ – providing children’s books to borrow onboard across thousands of flights since 2017 – and most recently last summer helping young flyers to explore different languages onboard through its free Mizzi Mozzi language learning e-books.
Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Country Manager commented:
“The return of test free travel in time for the half term break will be welcome news for so many families. We are always striving to ensure we make travel easy and fun for young flyers and our partnership with First News is another initiative designed to help to get kids flying with us get engaged in reading during the holidays, which we believe will be popular with parents and children alike.
“With low fares from just £9.99, so many fantastic destinations to choose from and leading flexibility, now is a great time to book with easyJet. We can’t wait to welcome our customers back onboard.”
Nicky Cox MBE, Editor-in-Chief of First News said:
“We are delighted to be partnering with easyJet, who share our passion for getting young people reading. Expertly written by experienced, unbiased journalists, First News gives children access to factual, impartial news and entertainment from the UK and around the world. First News is at the forefront of ensuring children have access to reliable, trustworthy and age-appropriate news curated especially for them. It takes the fear out of sensationalised world events that children hear, giving them a balanced and truthful view of the world, carefully, and sensitively, explaining the background to stories in the news. In our news coverage, First News counters over-reported negative news in other areas of the media by showing that there is much more good news in the world, than bad – and many more good people, than bad. First News gives children a voice about the issues they care about. While children make up 27% of the world’s people, they are 100% of the future. They can be agents of that future, all they need is the power of knowledge.”
A National Literacy Trust study into First News concluded that children that read the newspaper made better than expected progress in their reading. The NLT also said: Children highlighted the fact that First News is fun, interesting, easy to read and understand, very informative and above all, they appreciate the fact that it is aimed at children and made relevant to and appropriate for them.
To ensure it is as easy as possible for families to travel with easyJet, the airline has a number of family-friendly policies in place, from priority boarding for passengers travelling with children under 5 years old to allowing up to two additional items to brought on board at no additional cost, and, if customers need these items to get to the gate, such as a pushchair, these can be then placed in the cabin or hold when families arrive at the gate, free of charge.
To find out more visit https://www.easyjet.com/en/help/boarding-and-flying/flying-with-children.
