Originally Posted by
pholling
4xA321s only wouldn't make sense to put on the AoC and develop a mtc. However, if the plan were more in the longer-term these would make sense.
Probably the long term planning is the idea. BREXIT must be weighing heavily on decision making in the boardroom. The Withdrawal Agreement, that has taken 3 years to negotiate and pass through Parliament with no success so far, is only the beginning or tip of the iceberg. After the WA the UK has until December 2020 to negotiate the "Free" Trade Agreement with the EU. This date can be extended an extra 2 years but the application must be made to the EU by July 2020 and probably Mr. Johnson won't be willing to do so.
Trade Agreements take many years to negotiate, some can take 20 years or more. The recent trade agreement between the EU and Canada took about 9 years from the start of negotiations and finally signing between the parties concerned. Hence the possibility that the UK will eventually leave the EU without a Trade Deal of any kind is possible.
It makes sense therefore that JET2 are only purchasing 4 x A321s to replace some of their B757s and in the event that business in the UK in general goes belly up due to BREXIT, they have another 20 aircraft that are leased or old enough to retire to be able to downsize to cope with a possible future considerable reduction in travellers.