The Jet2 group has reported strong late demand over the summer, with package holiday prices showing “a modest increase on last year”.
Summer 2024 on-sale seat capacity at 17.17m seats is 12.4% higher than summer 2023 and a slight increase on that reported at the time of its preliminary results in July, the group said in an AGM statement on Thursday (September 5).
“The months of July and August experienced strong late booking momentum with September currently showing a similar trend,” it said.
“As a result, average load factor is now 1.2 percentage points behind summer 2023 at the same point.”
The number of package holiday customers is up by 8%, representing 70.2% of total departing passengers, with flight-only passengers increasing by 17%.
“The continued demand momentum has served to offset softer flight-only net ticket yields, although package holiday pricing remains resilient and continues to show a modest increase on last year,” added the statement.
Winter 2024-25 forward bookings are “encouraging” with average load factor 0.8 percentage points ahead of winter 2023-24 at the same point, against a 15% seat capacity increase to 5.14 million seats.
The package holiday mix is currently up by 1.9 percentage points, with pricing at this early stage showing a “modest increase”.
The group said the business continues to trade in line with management’s expectations.
“However, given the late booking profile, the remaining summer months of September and October not yet complete, plus the majority of winter 2024/25 seat capacity still to sell, it remains premature to provide definitive guidance as to group profitability for the financial year ending 31 March 2025. Consequently, we will provide a further update at the interim results on 21 November 2024,” it said.
Summer 2025 is already on sale with growth in seat capacity of approximately 6.4% and average load factor at this very early stage slightly ahead of summer 2024 at the same point.
• Meanwhile, Jet2.com has added more capacity to its Manchester programme, aimed at Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United fans who want to follow their teams in the Champions League and Europa League this season.
A flight from Manchester to Vienna on September 30 has been added, so Manchester City fans can reach Bratislava ahead of match against Slovan Bratislava on October 1.
A flight from Manchester to Barcelona on December 9 gives Liverpool supporters access to Girona ahead of their clash, with an extra flight afterwards, from Barcelona to Manchester on Wednesday December 11.
An additional flight to Porto on October 2 will cater for Manchester United’s game, with an extra flight added on October 4 for the return.
Manchester United fans heading to the FC Viktoria Plen fixture on December 12 can now book onto a new flight from Manchester to Prague on December 11.