UK. Fast-expanding airline Jet2.com has announced that it will base another 229-seat Boeing 757 at Manchester Airport to meet growing demand, in addition to helping ease capacity issues following the demise of XL Airways. It will create 25 new jobs as a result.
The company confirmed that its ninth 757 would be stationed at Manchester and would be used to increase capacity on its newly launched Dalaman and Sharm el Sheikh routes, which have seen strong sales, as well as filling the void left by XL Airways, notably on its Tenerife and Heraklion services.
Last week the airline announced it was increasing its hold baggage allowance by +30%, from 17kg to 22kg, offering its passengers the most generous allowance in the leisure airline sector.
Unlike many in the travel business, Jet2.com is bucking the current downturn and last month its parent company, Dart Group plc, announced record half-year profits of £30 million, and record load factors of more than 90%.
In other news, the airline recently launched 22 new routes for summer 2009 across its six UK bases, and has just been voted the UK’s best short-haul airline by readers of the Guardian and Observer newspapers, an accolade it has won for the past three years.
Philip Meeson, Jet2.com boss said: “At a time when many competitors are cutting back services and reducing capacity, we are increasing ours, not just taking advantage of gaps left by others, but expanding the capacity on our own popular routes.
“For example, since we launched Dalaman in Turkey, sales have been so strong that we are doubling the frequency for this route, and excellent sales and customer demand on our Sharm el Sheikh service has prompted us to make this route all year round.”
He added: “We also recently announced a +30% increase in baggage allowance – when you add up all these factors: excellent new destinations, improved passenger allowances and of course low, low fares, you can see why we’re enjoying the biggest growth period in our history.”
Jet2.com now has six aircraft stationed at Manchester: two Boeing 148-seat 737s and four 229-seat 757s.
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