The airline and operator on Friday (8 April) said the onset of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in late November and the subsequent reimposition of various international travel restrictions severely dampened the recovery that followed the near-total easing of the UK’s Covid travel curbs in October.
However, Jet2 stressed the swift relaxation of these rules in early 2022 – notably the end of pre-departure testing and testing upon return – resulted in an a notable uptick in bookings, with average load factors for February and March "approaching seasonal norms".
It said booking momentum was now accelerating as consumer confidence continues to grow.
The group now expects to report a full-year loss (year to 31 March 2022) before foreign exchange revaluation and taxation of between £378 million and £383 million. In November, Jet2 plc posted a half-year loss before foreign exchange revaluation and taxation of of £195.1 million.
Total cash as of 31 March was £2.23 billion, while Jet2’s own cash balance, excluding customer deposits, was £1.08 billion.
Jet2 said on-sale seat capacity for the summer was around 14% higher than it was in summer 2019, with package holiday customers comprising a "materially higher" proportion of these bookings.
"Average load factors for the summer 2022 season are currently 2.5 percentage points behind summer 2019 at the same point (against the 14% increase in seat capacity), with booking momentum accelerating, customer confidence continuing to grow and pricing robust," said Jet2 in its Friday trading update.
"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% hedged for jet fuel for summer 2022 and approximately 65% hedged for winter 2022/23 in line with our normal policy."
Jet2 also revealed it had recently upped its order for new Airbus A321neo aircraft from 51 to 57 after exercising an option on more aircraft; the airline and operator has flexibility to further extend this order to 75, if it wishes.
"We confidently believe that opportunities for financially strong, resilient and trusted operators will only increase," the group added. "We are well placed to respond now the leisure travel market has fully reopened."
The group will announce its preliminary results for the 2021/22 financial year (to 31 March) on 7 July, at which point it has pledged to provide a more detailed summer 2022 outlook.
