Airline and package holidays firm Jet2 says demand for winter getaways has driven strong bookings with higher pricing and margins.
The Leeds Bradford Airport-based operator told investors that it expects to report group profit before foreign exchange revaluation and taxation of between £370m and £385m for the year to the end of March 2023. Load factors - used by airlines to measure passengers to available seats - were said to be ahead of pre-pandemic levels in winter 2018/19, even against a 24% increase in seat capacity.
And Jet2 said about 60% of its total passengers were package holiday customers, a level 16 percentage points higher than at the same point in winter 2018/19. The update follows last year's strong criticism from the airline's founder and executive chairman Philip Meeson levelled at at airports amid well publicised travel disruption.
Read more: Post-Covid bookings take off again at easyJet
Ahead of this summer, forward bookings were said to be "encouraging", with strong pricing and margins as customers showed eagerness to get their "much valued and anticipated" holidays. Load factors were one percentage point ahead of summer 2022 at the same point and about 77% of travellers had opted for one of the firm's package holiday deals.
Jet2's statement to the London Stock Exchange said: "Although the group faces input cost pressures including fuel, carbon, a strengthened US dollar and wage increases, plus investment to ensure our colleagues can thrive and have a balanced lifestyle, which may mean margins come under some pressure, we remain confident that with our customer focused approach and right product for these tougher times, our customers will continue to be keen to travel with us from our rainy island to the sun spots of the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and to European leisure cities."
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