Jet2 firms up major aircraft order as annual profits jump by a third to £520 million

Citing the lateness of the market, and with the peak summer months still lying ahead and with the majority of winter 2024/25 capacity to sell, Heapy said it would be premature to offer any guidance on profitability for its 2024/25 financial year besides stressing year-to-date performance had been in line with expectations.

Nevertheless, Jet2 said its 2023/24 financials had given it the "future confidence" to exercise a number of outstanding purchase rights on new Airbus aircraft to grow its firm order book to 146.

Heapy said these aircraft, paired with new CFM Leap engines, would make a significant contribution to Jet2’s ability to "grow more sustainably" over the next 10 years, cutting both per-seat fuel burn and carbon emissions by 20%.

He attributed the group’s strong performance to another factor, the addition of more than 2,500 team members, bringing total headcount to more than 15,000 during peak summer flying activity.

Jet2 staff were awarded a 9% pay increase during the year to 31 March, and the company has committed to a further 5.5% pay hike during its 2024/25 financial year ending 31 March 2025. It said this represented a pay uplift of nearly a quarter (24%) since the end of the pandemic.

Heapy said Jet2, though, remained alert to "unpredictable challenges" posed by the external operating environment, praising the group’s "proactive approach" in mitigating the effects of last summer’s wildfires in Rhodes, floods in Skiathos, the August bank holiday air traffic control meltdown and ATC strikes across Europe.

"As ever, we remain mindful of the current macroeconomic and geopolitical environments and how these may influence future consumer spending patterns," Heapy continued. "However, we continue to believe that the end-to-end package holiday is a resilient and popular product which remains high on the priority list for our customers, even during uncertain economic times."

Jet2 has put more than 550,000 seats on sale from its newest UK base Liverpool, its 11th, while operations will get under way at its 12th – Bournemouth – in February 2025.

New additions for this summer and beyond highlighted by Heapy include the Greek island of Symi and coastal Athens, Porto, Morocco (Marrakech and Agadir), new Christmas market destination Gdansk, Pula on Croatia’s Istrian coast and Spain’s Costa de la Luz.