Jet2 reports jump in package sales
Strong package holiday sales by Jet2holidays helped its parent company achieve a 12% rise in half-year profit.
Dart Group reported pre-tax profit of £163.7 million for the six months to September 30, up from £146.8 in 2015.
Its leisure travel revenue grew by 22% to nearly £1.2 billion, topping the £1 billion mark for the first time.
The group said summer 2016 trading had been strong with demand for its ‘realpackage’ holidays continuing to grow.
Jet2holidays took 1.28 million customers on holiday during the period, an increase of 36% over the same period the year before.
Meanwhile its flight-only product carried 2.51 million passengers, down from 2.65 million last year.
"Whilst we recognise the likely upward pressures on market pricing following the weakening of Sterling post Brexit; for the long term, we have confidence in the resilience of our leisure travel business and are encouraged by the increasing proportion of customers taking our great value, realpackage holidays," it said.
"With winter 2016/17 leisure travel bookings continuing to perform in line with expectations, the Board is currently optimistic that market expectations for the full year will be slightly exceeded."
It said post Brexit bookings showed no signs of slowdown but warned of increased losses in the second half of the year as it invests in the launch of its news Birmingham and London Stansted Airport bases.
It will also be investing in additional aircraft, advertising and staff to prepare for further expansion to its flying programme in the summer 2017 season.
Jet2.com flew a total of 5.07 million passengers in the six months, a rise of 12%.
Airline ticket yields (£91.88) and average load factors (93.2%) were slightly lower than those achieved in last year’s summer season, but the group said this was against a backdrop of a 13% increase in seat capacity.
The average price of a package holiday grew by 1%.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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