Any repeat of last year’s chaotic airport disruption would be “inexcusable”, says the chief executive of Jet2 and Jet2holidays.
Commenting on the widespread problems in 2022 as airlines and airports ramped up operations after Covid rules were scrapped, Steve Heapy said: “It was inexcusable last year.
“Many companies messed other companies and customers around last year and gave them a terrible experience.
More: Jet2 unveils 11th base at Liverpool John Lennon Airport
“You have people who hadn’t had a holiday for three years, and then ended up with the disruption, which was terrible.
“If they make the same mistake again, they should just hang their heads in shame and fall on their sword.
“They’ve had a year to get this right now.”
He told a Travel Weekly webcast that the reputation of the industry had been “severely tarnished” during the pandemic by problems with refunds and operational difficulties in 2022.
He believes the industry can restore its reputation this year if there is little disruption and good service during 2023 – and he warned against further regulation to put “fixes in place”.
“It’s common sense and people taking the job seriously – recruiting enough people,” he added.
“It is pretty simple: you know what your flight programme is, you know how many customers you’re going to handle, and you recruit up to that number?
“It’s not rocket science but the last thing we need is more and more and more regulation.”
Heapy was speaking as Jet2 and Jet2holidays announced their 11th base at Liverpool, which sees flights and package holidays offered for summer 2024 to 20 destinations.
He expects customers to come to the sister brands if they have experienced problems with other operators or self-packaging.
“The last few years have been very disruptive for people. Customers, rightly so, measured their holiday company very harshly during things like the pandemic and some companies weren’t up to scratch and let the customers down. I think we didn’t,” he said.
“We’re seeing very high retention rates for our previous customers. But we’re also seeing a lot of brand new customers to the business that are coming from other operators.
“If you think someone self packaged last year, or during the pandemic, they bought the flight, accommodation and transfer separately: three separate transactions, three separate refunds, it was a nightmare.
“So they just want the peace-of-mind of booking with one company.”
Highlighting the brands’ award-winning credentials, he said: “We were noted for the way we handled people during the pandemic, refunding people in full and on time. And the operational performance last year was second to none.
“People have seen that, they understand that we take care of our customers, we take pride in customer service. And they want to experience that from Liverpool airport.”
More: Jet2 unveils 11th base at Liverpool John Lennon Airport