Jet2 taps into ‘whole new group’ of holidaymakers with Gatwick base

Jet2.com and sister brand Jet2holidays can tap into a new source of customers thanks to their newest base at Gatwick airport.

 

Announced on Thursday morning, the 14th base will start operating next March, with six aircraft flying on 29 routes.

 

Steve Heapy, Jet2 chief executive, told a Travel Weekly webcast there may be “a little bit of crossover” with some people who have previously gone to Stansted or Luton switching to now to Gatwick, but added: “There is a whole new group of people in the [Gatwick] catchment area that haven’t flown with us before that hopefully will want to fly with us.

 

“We are renowned for providing the best customer service and looking after people, and lots of people want to experience that. When you are in tough economic times, people tend to gravitate to the brands they know and trust.”

 

Asked if this means additional customers, he said: “There’s lots of people that live down here that would like to try Jet2.

 

“I’ve been speaking to some of them this morning, and for whatever reason, Stansted was too far, Luton was too far, and Gatwick is now right for them.”

 

In its announcement, the company said Gatwick serves a catchment area of almost 15 million people who can access it by road or rail within 60 minutes.

 

“We’ve been asked for a long time to operate from here. Lots of customers have wanted us to come here,” Heapy told Travel Weekly.

 

“We have been flying a little bit in the winter for the last couple of years – doing some ski flights and charter flights – but we now have a year-round operation, and it’s very exciting.

 

He also said people in the trade are “very excited” by the news, commenting: “Alan Cross [Jet2holidays’ travel agent relationships director] is away on the Hays Travel conference at the moment, and he’s been speaking to a lot of the agents there, and to Dame Irene – I think everyone’s very excited about it; very, very happy to have us, and looking forward to taking people on one of our flights or holidays.”

 

He confirmed that the availability of take-off and landing slots at Gatwick meant Jet2 could now start to establish a base there.

 

“It’s a very, very busy airport, and there wasn’t the opportunity to start an operation, but there’s a little bit of capacity [that has] become available following some work that’s been done at the airport, and we’re able, as a new entrant, to get slots to operate six aircraft,” he said.

“I am very happy that we’ve got pretty much what we wanted.

 

“It is going to be a big job to get things set up in time for the start of the operation on March 26, but we’re all very excited…and looking forward to providing our VIP service to people in the Gatwick catchment area.”

 

He said plans for the base had been kept secret within the company, with those involved kept to “an absolute bare minimum”.

 

“Now…we can really start to work on everything we need. But I’m very confident that we’ll be ready on March 26,” he said.

 

And, in the long-term, he hopes to add more aircraft to the six that will serve Gatwick next year.

 

The company so far has received 23 aircraft from its order of 146 A321neo aircraft so another 123 will come from Airbus, “which will replace our existing fleet and also provide us with the ability to grow”, he added.

 

“We’ll see how things pan out over the next few years, but I’m sure that we’ll get the opportunity to grow further,” he told the webcast.

 

“We’ve got a guaranteed aircraft order, and I would love to put more of those in Gatwick, as I’d love to put them in our other 13 bases as well.

 

“Gatwick is like the latest of a number of children. We love all our bases as much as each other. There are no favourites, and I would like to see them all flourish and develop.

 

“We’ve got plenty of aircraft, and we’ve got the ability to do that over the coming years.”