Dart Group said a year of strong passenger growth had enabled group revenue to rise by 38% to £2.4 billion in the 12 months to March 31.
Jet2.com flew a total of 10.38 million passengers during the group’s last financial year – an increase of 46% year-on-year – with average load factors jumping to 92.2% from 91.5% in 2017.
Average airline ticket yields fell 15%, from £86.65 in 2017 to £73.65 this year, against a 45% increase in seat capacity and “very competitive pricing in summer 2017”, Dart Group reported.
Although the average price of a Jet2holidays package holiday grew by 3% to £633 over the last 12 months and as a result, revenue in Dart Group’s leisure travel arm grew by 42% to £2.2 billion.
In the past year, Jet2holidays also expanded its hotel portfolio to more than 3,400 hotels (up from 2,900 hotels in 2017) while Jet2.com now boats a fleet of 90 aircraft from summer 2018.
Giving his outlook on current trading, Philip Meeson, Dart Group’s executive chairman said demand for its leisure travel product had strengthened since the start of the new financial year.
“Given current forward bookings we expect that group profit before foreign exchange revaluations and taxation for the financial year ending March, 31 2019, will substantially exceed current market expectations,” Meeson said.
“Looking further ahead, emerging cost pressures coupled with the overall uncertain UK economic outlook, particularly related to Brexit and how it may impact on consumer spending, means we remain unclear how demand will develop in the medium term,” he added.
“For the long term however, our strategy remains consistent - to grow both our flight-only and package holiday products. Real Package Holidays take considerable organisation and attention to detail and are not easily replicated by non-specialists.
“The group dedicates significant resources to deliver an innovative and industry leading product and together with our scale, experience, competitiveness and customer focused approach, we believe we have a strong and resilient leisure travel business.”
