The airline and operator’s eligibility to tap the Bank of England fund was established last May, giving it access to £300 million via a commercial loan. On Friday (12 March), Jet2 plc said its eligibility to tap the facility had been re-confirmed after the Treasury amended the requirements.
“We are pleased to announce Jet2 plc has been re-confirmed as an eligible issuer for the CCFF for up to £200 million,” said Jet2 in a stock exchange note.
“The company intends to issue the full amount of commercial paper through the CCFF prior to the closure of the scheme on 22 March 2021, which will be used to provide standby liquidity if required.”
Philip Meeson, Jet2 plc executive chair, said: “The group is grateful to both the Bank of England and HM Treasury for the CCFF, [and] the ongoing provision of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
“Together with the responsible liquidity actions already taken by the business, this provides the group with additional headroom to deal with the ongoing cost of disruption to our sector, ensuring we can continue to support our great business through this challenging period.”
Meeson said Jet2 plc’s liquidity position was strong with total cash of £1.189 billion, excluding the CCFF option, as of 7 March, and own cash of £892 million, excluding advance custoemr deposits.
He also revealed the business had returned more than £1.2 billion in customer deposits since the start of the pandemic.
Meeson said the business had experienced “a notable increase” in bookings for summer 2021 “in line with more recent positive news” with respect to plans for destinations to reopen and the progress of the UK’s Covid-19 vaccination effort.
“We continue to be encouraged by the volume of our customer bookings for both winter 2021/22 and summer 2022,” Meeson added.
