Jet 2 - How is it doing?

[RHINO]

Anybody care to comment. Loads,routes, recruitment, etc.

[Notso Fantastic]

No- not in R & N. Why don't you post in the proper place?

[HOODED]

Believe they're doing ok. Their May passenger figures averaged 71% with Milan their worst route at 55% and Malaga their best at 85% (Source CAA). Also they have a very good product, having flown with them to Palma, and their on time performance seems very good too! I believe they keep a spare ac available to cover for the 3 ac required for their current route structure. I'm sure they'll go from strength to strength and would have done even better had it not been for Planetair starting up a lo co at around the same time ex LBA. Looking at their website www.jet2.com/cgi-bin/jet2/I6/home they have a lot of flights full to/from Malaga and Palma this month so they seem to be growing their routes nicely. Going to AMS with them in Sept cost me return plus taxes (one of their specials) so I hope they're still around!

[682ft AMSL]

LBA just issued this release for July. Looks like another good month for Jet2 and after 13 years of p***ing about, it looks like FlyBE have finally cottoned on to the potential for LBA-BHD.

http://www.lbia.co.uk/newsstory.php?storyid=20030804

The peak summer season has had a roaring start at Leeds Bradford International Airport with total passenger numbers up 37% (215,001) for the month of July versus the same month last year.

As the schools broke up, the families of Yorkshire packed their suitcases with 77,168 charter passengers using LBA for the month of July, showing a healthy increase of 13%.

It was also the highest month recorded for scheduled services with 137,355 passengers, an increase of 55%. Jet2, Yorkshire’s own low cost airline, accounted for 48,143 of those passengers. Belfast saw a significant increase of 57% (13,028) with our Scottish neighbours also proving popular with a 12% (3,891) increase to Glasgow and 3% (4,468) on our Edinburgh services. Eastern Airways, who took over the BA routes of Isle of Man, Aberdeen and Southampton, are delighted with the success they are experiencing with all routes in a plus position.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Making 737's pay, in the summer, the likes of Malaga and Palma - is childs play.

Mid-week February will tell.

WWW

[682ft AMSL]

Indeed, which is why they've scaled back on most of their summer 'sun' routes for the winter. Only Malaga will be flown daily. ALC & BCN 4 x weekly and PMI just 1 x weekly. NCE and BGY are likely to be suspended for the winter.

New services to FAO, PRG and GVA will take up some of the capacity that these reductions make available, but not all. What remains unknown at the moment is if / how they intend to fill the void. There is a school of thought that suggests they picked up their machines so cheaply from the Ansett receivers, that come mid-week in February, the most cost effective thing to do is to do nothing. Equally, some circles suggest they'll launch routes to BFS, TFS amongst others, which should work well in the winter.

682

[Ikkle!]

So how many more Aircraft are to be added to the Jet2 fleet???
Has LBA got enough ramp space.....???

I hope Multi-flight have concidered B737 maintenance now they have the BBJ...possible Jet2 maint. cover?????

[Exel]

Ikkle....

There are currently four more 737-300's sat at Bournemouth undergoing various checks before being dispatched off to Jet 2......all arrived from Australia/Mojave within the past 3 weeks.

[RAFAT]

682 - Yes, I'm glad to see we've finally got rid of the CRJ from the BHD route and put some decent capacity on it. With regard to trying again with a London service, (LGW/LCY) and even Frankfurt, we can't seem to get our planners to go for it I'm afraid.

Good on yer Jet2 for making it work at LBA. :ok:

[682ft AMSL]

Ickle - as I understand it, Multiflight will providing some sort of maintenance cover for Jet2. A recent communication from them said:

"Multiflight's £8 million development on the South Side of Leeds Bradford Airport continues with the construction of two new hangars, with 6300 sq metres of space – capable of accommodating four BBJ2's! With the arrival of Jet2 and its expanding fleet of 737's our facility will provide Leeds Bradford Airport with maintenance services for this type of aircraft".

The hangers are currently being clad at the moment and should be ready for operational use by October.

The airport also announced this morning that they are intending to significantly increase the number of check-in desks (from 26 to 42) by April, presumably in anticipation of Jet2 expansion for Summer 04.

RAFAT - I think once the crew base went, new routes were never going to happen.

682

[Torquelink]

TFS while I don't know what J2 paid for their aircraft there are some amazing deals to be done on B733s these days. Just three years ago a recent build B733 would lease for around $300k/m. Today, the same aircraft would be around $100k/m. This primarily due to overproduction and heavy discounting of new B737-700s and A320s. Some lessors will currently agree to lower rentals over the winter or even a "pay when you fly" arrangement. I should think that, at the prices/rentals J2 are paying, their seat-mile costs will be lower than for NG aircraft and, if necessary, they could afford to park them for a while in the winter months.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

I am sure Jet2 achieved amazingly low leases for their aircraft.

So did everyone else this year.

Thats not a unique selling proposition. O Leary's 737-800's bought under floating dollar lease terms are now laughably cheap. Easy's Airbuses bought prior to the Euros recent rise now look cheap enough to live in.

Cost of aircraft and cost of fuel are generally not a competitive advantage in the industry for more than 6 months.

After that its all down to operating costs, load factor and yields.

Which out of Leeds in February mid-week may prove decisive. If they can make it work then great. The travelling public benefit form a new service and crew benefit from having another employer competing for their services.

Cheers

WWW

[galley-wench22]

All Jet2 a/c are owned by the dartgroup/Channel Express. None are leased.

See: http://www.caa.co.uk/srg/aircraft_register/ginfo/default.asp

The four Jet2 a/c are:

G-CELS
G-CELV
G-CELU
G-GELX

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Yes yes yes. How you choose to finance an airlines assets is barely germane to how sound their business plan is. Not to say that Jet2 won't do very nicely. Channex are a well managed company from what I know. Steady measured growth has seen them develop a very nice little business over the years and their pilots seem a happy enough bunch of bunnies.

But.

It matters not if you have borrowed money from the bank to buy an aircraft, whether you lease it from someone else, whether you buy it give it to another part of the group then lease it back, pay for it by the hour, sub-charter, wet lease or dry lease or just turn up with a suitcase full of cash. It doesn't really matter if they are new aircraft that cost a fortune or old aircraft that are worth nothing. The costs all even out and its only accountancy black magic that dictates which way you go.

You could hardly argue that BA has not invested in the industry because it doesn't 'own' its own aircraft for example.

It does seem though that the low cost 737 airline train departed the station in the last century.

The myriad of new starters surely don't envisage growing to be a full size pan European low cost airline... in which case are they going to be niche players for ever? In which case will the large low cost airlines simply buy them out or cripple them at some point in the future when it suits them to do so? Is that the plan?

I don't know. Its interesting to watch though. Why anyone ever decides to get into the airline business though is a mystery to me. It makes politics look straightforward and simple by comparison.

Cheers

WWW

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

As they always used to say, the way to make a million dollars in the airline business is to start off with two million. While the low cost no-frills model is here to stay, whether in the very long run it will make much money for the investors and the entrepreneurs remains to be seen, in my opinion. A lot of water still upstream of this particular bridge !

[Oscar Duece]

"the way to make a million is to spend 2 million"

Not that old crock of sh!t again. That's the slogan of the weak minded fools in this world, who will never be more that 9-5 clock watchers.
If you want to make a fortune in any business, you must be smarter than the often larger, lethargic, top heavy competition.
You must 'grow' your business (not expand) often in niche areas to start with, ever encrouching on the bigger fish. You must offer a top quality product / service and convince the customer market to trust you.
Then as with almost all buisinesses, you will only realise it's true value (your fortune)when you sell it or float it. If you've done your job right (ala Go) it's often the compeition that snap you up.

As for J2 in particular. They have what other small locos do not have. A stable and profitable group behind them. To finance fixed assets and create a supporting wall. Smaller companies can fight a price war with larger more established competitors, (especially in a low margin industry) because they have the lower cost base / variable costs. Done the same thing myself in a different industry.

The future look good for J2, certainly a lot better than myt.lite and even BE. (only 1 % profit).:rolleyes: