Karen Peattie

REVENUES at airline and leisure group Jet2 have rebounded on the back of renewed consumer confidence post-pandemic and an upsurge in package holidays with the business reporting sales up 300% to £5.03 billon and group pre-tax profit of £390.8 million for the year ending March 31, 2023, compared to a £376.2m loss a year earlier.

The holiday specialist, based at Leeds Bradford Airport, also revealed in unaudited accounts for the year that operating losses of more than £320m were turned around to operating profits of £394m following a turbulent time for aviation and the travel industry. But it blamed airport delays and disruption for a £50m cost hit.

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However, the not-unexpected upswing in revenue and profits was dampened as shares slumped by over 14% at one point as investors were spooked on news that Jet2 executive chairman Philip Meeson is stepping from the board and moving into a non-executive role.

Mr Meeson, 75, who has developed the business he bought in 1983 when it a small cargo airline and distribution company serving the Channel Islands, cited being “conscious of my age and the need to plan an orderly succession” as the reason for stepping down.

Jet2, which flew a total of 16.22 million single sector passengers compared to 4.85 million in 2022, an increase of 234%, said that sale seat capacity for summer 2023 is currently 7.5% higher than summer last year at 15.29 million seats.

It said customers choosing its end-to-end package holiday products soared by 310% to 5.29 million from 1.29 million in 2022: 1.29 million, boosted assisted by some high-volume routes operating package-only flights. The airline’s Jet2holidays division accounted for £4.02bn of revenue.

In his chairman’s statement, Mr Meeson said: “Despite the group facing various input cost pressures such as fuel, carbon taxes, a strengthened US dollar and wage increases, as well as investment to support the wellbeing and work-life balance of our colleagues, pricing to date for both our package holidays and flight-only products has been robust and consequently margins per booked passenger satisfactory.

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“Looking forward, although we continue to believe that the end-to-end package holiday is a resilient and popular product, particularly during difficult economic times and our ability to offer truly variable duration holidays enables our customers to tailor their holiday plans to suit their individual budgets, we are cognisant of how quickly the macro-economic environment is evolving and how this may affect consumers’ future spending.

“On that basis, and with the peak summer months of July, August and September not yet complete plus the majority of winter 2023/2024 seat capacity still to sell, it remains premature, as is always the case at this time of year, to provide definitive guidance as to group profitability for the financial year ending March 31, 2024.”

All the same, the group, in recent weeks, has announced a “major expansion” of its early summer 2024 programme from Glasgow and Edinburgh airports. It also said that Jet2.com and Jet2holidays will be putting more flights and holidays on sale to 17 sunshine destinations from across 10 of their UK bases for spring and easter 2024.

Earlier this year, the business confirmed that a new base at Liverpool John Lennon Airport would be operational from next March. In March, it took delivery of the first of 35 new Airbus A321/A320neo aircraft which offer reduced fuel consumption and resultant carbon emissions per seat, plus a much lower noise footprint to enable Jet2.com and Jet2holidays to grow more sustainably.

Shares closed at £11.21.