I remember people at Jet2 were put on to 75% contracts and worse during the last recession.
Who told you that? I have worked here for almost 16 years now and that’s the first I have heard of it. I think someone is pulling your whizzer. The only base they have closed was STN back in the days when Jet2 didn’t operate from there and it was Jet2 that they wanted to concentrate on rather than the cargo and ad hoc charter market from STN. All other bases have remained in situ throughout the previous recessions.
As for your analogy of bucket bucket and spade not working well during a downturn, can I remind you that we seem to have evolved and would respectfully suggest that all holiday companies and airlines suffer during downturns. Having said that the Dart Group has NEVER made a loss.
I agree that EZY is well established, but Jet2 have been operating out of BFS for 15 years now, so they are hardly a newbie.