Jet2 hits new heights despite pressure on people’s disposable incomes
Leisure travel group, Jet2 plc, says it has delivered record passenger numbers, revenues and profitability and further strengthened its balance sheet as it issues its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2024.
The Leeds-headquartered business has reported group revenue rising by 24% to £6.3bn (2023: £5bn).
Group profit before foreign exchange revaluation and taxation increased by 33% to £520.1m (2023: £390.8m) and group profit before taxation was up by 43% to £529.5m (2023: £371m).
The number of total passengers flown climbed 9% to 17.72m (2023: 16.22m).
Jet2 said its success was achieved in the face of a difficult year for UK consumers, with rising inflation and elevated interest rates putting pressure on people’s disposable income levels.
Chief executive officer, Steve Heapy, said: “The group commits considerable investment in order to be well prepared for its summer operations and summer 2023 was no different, as we welcomed over 2,500 new colleagues bringing the total number to over 15,000 at peak summer flying activity.
“Although the widespread aviation sector disruption experienced in summer 2022 was not repeated, as always, we anticipated there would be unpredictable challenges posed by the external operating environment.
“This means investing to embed sufficient resilience into our operations, including but not limited to, standby aircraft and crews, generous amounts of in-resort customer helpers, plus responsive ‘go teams’ in the event of unforeseen developments.
“This proactive approach enabled us to effectively navigate summer 2023 events such as Rhodes (wildfires) and Skiathos (flooding), the technological systems failure at NATS, together with the record number of air traffic control strikes across Europe and mitigate the impact on our customers.”
Jet2 says its summer 2024 on sale seat capacity is currently 12.3% higher than summer 2023 at 17.16m seats.
Booked to date package holiday customers are up 7%, representing 72% of overall flown passengers, with flight-only passengers increasing by 16%.
The group adds it has demonstrated confidence in its future by exercising its remaining Airbus order purchase rights. This means it now has a delivery stream of 146 firm ordered A321neo aircraft delivering through to 2035.
