Expected profits soar at Jet2 ahead of summer season

Leeds-headquartered tourism and travel business, Jet2, says it expects to report a group pre-tax profit of between £515m and £520m for the year ended 31 March 2024.

This would be an increase of about 33% on the prior year and is in line with current market expectations.

The group says its balance sheet position remains very strong with total cash at 31 March 2024 of £3.2bn and an ‘Own Cash’ balance (excluding customer advance deposits) of £1.3bn.

On sale seat capacity for summer 2024 is currently 12.3% higher than summer 2023 at 17.1m seats.

Forward bookings for package holiday customers are up by 13% and the group notes it is also seeing healthy demand from flight-only passengers for which bookings are currently up by over 18%.

Steve Heapy, chief executive officer, said: “We are pleased with the strong financial results for FY24 which underlines the resilience, flexibility and popularity of our product offering, plus the outstanding customer service provided by our colleagues.”

Since February, Jet2 has taken delivery of a further two new CFM powered A321neo aircraft from Airbus in line with its agreed delivery schedule, with both paid for from the group’s own cash reserves.

It now has has seven of these aircraft in its fleet ahead of summer 2024, with another four aircraft from its order planned to arrive before the end of FY25.

A spokesman for the group said: “Operationally we are well set for a successful summer 2024 season with the required number of aircraft to support our flying programme and sufficient, fully trained resources to operate our end-to-end product proposition to our normal high standards of customer care.

“We are pleased with our progress for FY25 to date although as ever, we remain mindful of the current macro-economic and geo-political environments and how these may impact future consumer spending.

“Consequently, and with over 40% of summer 2024 and the majority of winter 2024/2025 seasons still to sell, it is too early to provide guidance as to group profitability for FY25.”