While it is obviously true no one knows what the position is in Egypt in the next few weeks let alone months, according to reports at the weekend bookings for Sharm are massively down as a result customer concerns about the political position out there. It is a very bold move but depending on what they replace the Sharm flights with could just make them lots of money. Time will tell.

i did notice an extra palma flight from manchester on a sunday.not sure if thats replaced sharm

From what I have heard bookings have dropped to virtually nothing. And reading the different travel forums, potential customers were actually criticising the airline for continuing to push Egypt in their current ad campaign. I guess the people have spoken!

This move has nothing to do with safety of its passengers and anyone who thinks so is living in cloud cuckoo land.:=
This is solely a commercial decision based on the drop in bookings that the Red Sea resorts are currently experiencing.:{

......... Great, there goes my only flight in March!

People - you can't simply cancel a series of flights from tomorrow as there will always be a certain amount of people already in resort which will need bringing home. Therefore, you set yourself a target for finishing to allow adequate time to contact outbound affected passengers in February with return flights in March while making sure passengers at destination have a means for getting home.:=

They way that you have to look at it, and how Jet2 have looked at it is pretty simple. You either:

1) Run the full Sharm (& Tunisia) program, as pointed out the bookings for these resorts has plummeted in the last month or so. The flights would however operate at a loss as falling consumer confidence would mean yields would have to be compensated to gain a load factor. There is then the unknown over how long these protests will last, maybe if they stop next week then it was a rash decision to cancel, but if they last for months then the entire summer program would be operating a huge loss.

2) Cancel the flights now, re-accommodate passengers onto alternative flights/destinations and replace the slots with additional capacity i.e. Palma on a Sunday (which replaced the Tunisia rotation) which will always be full and will operate at a profit.

Personally if it was my choice I would cancel before it is too late. Jet2 have time to fill any gaps made by the cancellation of Egypt/Tunisia now. If it was left much later then they would not have sufficient time to fill the replacement flights.

I would imagine the routes will be back for the winter season once it has become clear how the market is coping.

A rash decision IMO too. Unlike in Tunisia, the Red Sea is a world away from Cairo. The area is calm and there has been no problems. Indeed, in a relatively sparsely populated area where tourism is very heavily relied upon, tourists down there are never likley to encounter any problems.

Posted by easyflyer83
I don't think you can say that with certainty. Was there not a bomb explosion in the centre of Sharm only a couple of years ago.

And what about the hungry shark?

At this rate there'll be nowhere but Majorca to sun-it-up!

PP :}

Egypt
 

I would suspect that to bin the program now would be very expensive given that Foreign office advice not to travel certain parts of Egypt does not include Sharm and people who booked 6 months ago can not cancel within their insurance terms and get a refund unless the FO advise against travel.

So given that the pax flying out between now and the end of March will have paid in full by now Jet2 have a choice to either operate or refund and many of these will be Jet2holidays.com in other words it's not just a flight only refund but holidays costing £000's that would probably wipe out Jet2 profitability this year.

Jet2 are not in the same league as TUI who can afford to offer customers a refund or switch resort on a goodwill bases without a FO travel advisory, get this wrong and it could bring them down, some Egypt specialist travel companies will fail off the back of this.

Jet2 will not go back to Sharm before S12 at the earliest, Mubarak has said he will step down in elections this September so unrest will be all over the news again this Autumn, that's if he's not over thrown by then.

If the Muslim brotherhood get in they may take a rather different view of people visiting their country and sitting in the Sun getting p****d with their tits out and that's just the blokes!! Egypt could become as popular as those other sun spots Iraq & Iran

Therefore a line has been drawn where the dip between old previous Xmas bookings and new post Xmas booking is at it's lowest this is the cheapest option, there is no current risk to the customer Sharks aside in Sharm, however the question is would you book your main Summer hols in Sharm this year? the answer must be no given that things are as likely to get worse as they are better.

I agree that Jet2 Holidays are not in the same league as TUI, but I'm sure that TUI recently posted an £84m loss.

TSR2, bomb in Sharm El Sheikh, bombs in Bali, ETA blasts all over Spain........none of them were really related to the uprising we have seen in the major Cities of Egypt were they?

Lets be sensible here, the risks in the Cities have increased because the locals there have been pumped full of Sh*t about tourists being Israeli spy's. Those on the riviera meanwhile live and breath tourism and they know which side their bread is buttered so there is unlikely to be any problems there. The advice from the Foreign Office is normally very good and they don't advise against travel there so I think we can be safe in the knowledge that foreigners will indeed be safe travelling there.

So the real reason is financial....pure and simple.

So during the summer Jet2's aircraft utilization is going to be even more improved!! :rolleyes:

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays have gone on sale today with more flights to Spain and Portugal. Following on from overwhelming customer demand new flights are available to book now for this summer!

Manchester

Additional flights added to Alicante and Majorca making the flights double daily on Fridays and Sundays. An additional flight to Tenerife on Saturday meaning there are now 3 flights per week to this sunny hot-spot. Plus we now have even more seats available to Ibiza and Malaga and even better flight times to our Turkish destinations from Manchester!

Leeds Bradford

A new Thursday flight from Leeds Bradford to Tenerife meaning Yorkshire holiday makers can now travel to Tenerife with Jet2 4 times a week! Plus an additional Sunday morning service to Murcia!

Glasgow

Our Scottish customers can take advantage of more flights to Majorca with seats on sale today for Wednesday's meaning customers now have a choice of travel 6 times a week from Glasgow!

Newcastle

North East travellers can take advantage of 2 new flights to Alicante with Jet2 now operating additional morning flights on Thursdays and Sundays meaning customers now have the chance to fly to Alicante 6 days a week! Plus there are even more seats available on flights from the North East to Malaga and Faro giving travellers even more choice to choose the summer holiday of their dreams!

If you would like to take advantage of these great flights to Spain and Portugal don't delay and book today

Fernanjet
 

Now is that not what l posted last night.:ugh:

Probably if I wanted ti go to Sharm! . There IMO will soon be an end to the unrest in Egypt.

The result could well be that the bold bargain hunters will get their moneys worth - While those taking a short term view of the medium/long term will lose out.

I could be wrong but with Mubarak surely certain to go September at the latest - The unrest will die on it's feet.bit by bit - day by day.

It is indeed....just re-iterating your well made point!!