Jet2 hails surge in bookings as it faces £383m loss

Holiday giant Jet2 said the easing of UK travel restrictions led to a significant increase in bookings in February and March, although the company still expects a bumper loss for the past year.

The company said bookings for the period were approaching “seasonal norms as customer confidence in international travel rallied”.

The West Yorkshire-based travel agency said it was also positive about the summer, pointing to “encouraging” booking patterns and pointed out its flight capacity was 14% above levels. before the pandemic.

In a statement, it said: “Average load factors for the summer 2022 season are currently 2.5 percentage points behind summer 2019 at the same point (compared to the 14% increase in seat capacity), with booking momentum accelerating, customer confidence continuing to grow, and prices robust as customers treat themselves to their long-awaited and well-deserved vacations.

“We have been working hard to plan for recovery for the summer of 2022, investing well ahead of the season to ensure we have adequate resources to operate with our normal levels of customer service.”

It came as Jet2 said it expected to post a pre-tax loss of up to £383m for the year to the end of March.

Jet2 said it saw an increase in passenger numbers in October and November last year after the government scrapped the pandemic traffic light system.

However, he said the improvement in customer sentiment faded in December and January as trade was affected by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and the reintroduction of some travel restrictions as a result.

Jefferies equity analyst Becky Lane said Jet2 now expects a slightly smaller loss than analysts expected.

Shares of the company thus rose 3.4% at the start of the session.

About Coy Lewallen

Check Also

Several emergency services respond to an overturned car

A car overturned on a busy road near Wimborne this afternoon, prompting several emergency services …