The airline said it had been focusing over the past six months on establishing “a structure and platform for the business as well as continue to define the offering” for the tour operation.

EasyJet Holidays, led by chief executive Garry Wilson, made a series of appointments earlier this year to create a board of directors.

“With the team, structure and technology now in place, easyJet Holidays is continuing to develop its direct relationships with key hotel partners throughout Europe and negotiations are well advanced,” said the company in an update, accompanying its first-half financial results.

“EasyJet’s aim is to work with the most loved hotels in city, beach and ski destinations and to complement these hand-picked hotels with a full range of accommodation options through our partners.”

EasyJet added that the opportunity for its holidays division was “significant”, particularly as it currently only sells accommodation to around 500,000 of its customers.

The company added it was working with technology firm Valtech to design and build the new “front end” website, while Atcore is developing the “back end” of the system including the reservation and distribution platform.

Wilson said: “We’re delighted to have appointed Atcore, a best-in-class technology provider. Atcore is uniquely placed to develop a platform that can provide a bespoke easyJet Holidays product and customer proposition that can scale across all of easyJet’s markets as we grow.”