Resurgent destinations such as Turkey and Cyprus are at the forefront of Jet2’s expansion plans after it was this week revealed the operator had significantly extended its Atol with the addition of nearly a million extra protected seats.
However, while the programme offers vast capacity for traditional winter sun destinations like the Canary Islands, Mainland Spain and Portugal, Jet2 says one of the main drivers behind its expansion was the growing recognition, and acceptance, of Turkey, Cyprus and Malta - traditionally summer sun hotspots - as winter destinations.
Jet2 will place more than 140,000 Antalya seats on sale next winter, up 44%, with year-round flights from four of its nine UK bases - Stanstead, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.
Meanwhile, its Cyprus programme to Paphos and Larnaca has been expanded to almost 200,000 seats, up 42%.
Steve Heapy, chief executive of of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, said: “This is our biggest and most exciting winter sun programme ever, giving customers across our nine UK bases even more choice and flexibility when it comes to getting away next winter.
“As ever, we have designed our programme in direct response to demand from holidaymakers, so as well as continuing to offer more flights and holidays to popular winter hotspots such as the Canaries, Balearics, Portugal and Spain, we are delighted to be expanding our winter offering to fantastic destinations such as Turkey, Cyprus and Malta.”
Atol-protected Jet2holidays packages offer thousands of two to five-star hotels, 22kg luggage and airport transfers, on a £60 deposit.
Other additions and features of Jet2’s winter 2019/20 plans include:
- Additional services to Malta amounting to a total increase in capacity of more than 25% with more than 45,000 seats on sale
- More than 1.5 million Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura seats, an increase of 10%, and 150 flights a week spread across the four islands
- Around 850,000 mainland Spain seats (Malaga and Alicante), an increase of 12%
- An additional 25,000 Faro (Algarve) seats meaning around 250,000 on sale, an increase of 12%
- More than 175,000 seats on sale to the Balearics - Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza - up 7%
