Lift-off for Jet2 as bookings increase

But holiday giant still expects a bumper loss

HOLIDAY GIANT Jet2 has said the relaxation of UK travel restrictions led to a significant increase in bookings in February and March, although the firm still expects a bumper loss for the past year.

The company said bookings for the period approached seasonal norms as customer confidence in travelling overseas improved.

The Leeds-based travel firm said it was also positive about the summer, reporting “encouraging” booking patterns and highlighted that its flight capacity was 14 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The statement added: “Pleasingly, progressive relaxation of UK travel restrictions in early 2022 – firstly, with the removal of pre-departure tests for vaccinated people travelling to the UK; and subsequently no longer having to take a post-arrival lateral flow test – resulted in bookings increasing materially with average load factors for February and March 2022 approaching seasonal norms as customer confidence in travelling internationally rallied.

“As a result, the board expects to report a group loss before foreign exchange revaluation and taxation for the year of between £378m and £383m. Total cash at March 31, 2022 was £2.23bn with an ‘Own Cash’ balance (excluding customer advance deposits) of £1.08bn.”

The statement added: “We have worked hard to plan recovery for summer 2022, investing well ahead of the season to ensure we have adequate resources to operate with our normal levels of customer care.

“We also self-handle at many of our key bases and are therefore not reliant on third parties for these aspects of our operations.

“Additionally, we are currently 95 per cent hedged for jet fuel for summer 2022 and approximately 65 per cent hedged for winter 22/23 in line with our normal policy.

“Jet2.com and Jet2holidays are

well-recognised national brands with a loyal leisure travel customer following and we confidently believe that opportunities for financially strong, resilient and trusted operators will only increase.

“With our strong ‘Own Cash’ balance... we are well placed to respond now that the leisure travel market has fully re-opened.”

Becky Lane, equity analyst at Jefferies, said that Jet2 is now expecting a loss slightly smaller than predicted by analysts.

The group will announce its preliminary results for the year on July 7.