Jet2 on course for record year after flying start to summer
05.05.07
Low cost airline Jet2 has had its busiest start to summer trading ever. Year-on-year passenger figures for holidaymakers flying with the airline on May 1 were up 58 percent on 2006, boosted by the launch of its packaged holiday business.
The Leeds Bradford Airport-based airline has enjoyed rapid growth since launching, but passenger figures for May 1, and pre-bookings for the remainder of May, are already in excess of 50 percent up on 2006, the airline said. It is on target to carry more than 4m customers in its current financial year.
The airline said that the successful launch of its unique package holiday business Jet2holidays.com had boosted trading. Mandy Round, General Manager of Jet2holidays.com, said: 'May 1 was the day we officially started taking customers on holidays packaged together using our own low cost flights. The take-up for our packaged holidays has been fantastic and has contributed to such a strong start to summer trading - the sales growth is even more remarkable at a time when there has been such a huge amount of consolidation in the package tour sector.'
'We have managed to outmanoeuvre the bigger tour operators by sticking to three very straightforward principles. Firstly, we are ultra-competitive on price and we can do this by providing 'market rate', as-it-happens pricing, not brochure prices which may have been set and published last year. Secondly, our properties are three to five-star only, which is not typical for package holidays, especially low-priced deals, so our customers can be assured of excellent accommodation when they arrive in their named hotel, apartment or resort. Finally, we take customer service extremely seriously and we believe that just because we offer excellent value for money, our standards should not be compromised.'
The airline said that it was on schedule to smash its annual passenger figures. It expects to carry around 4.4m in this financial year.