Jet2.com saw a “pronounced” fall in ticket yields to the Canary islands and eastern Mediterranean destinations during the summer.

The Leeds-based airline and tour operator said average ticket yields fell by 1.6% during the six-month period to the end of September, compared with the previous year.

Jet2.com’s parent company Dart Group said in a trading statement that the holiday brand’s sales had improved “in the later summer months as compared to the challenging market conditions experienced earlier in the season”.

The firm was boosted by a 21% rise in package holiday passengers during the half-year rising from 635,000 in 2013 to 771,000 this year. Flight-only sales also rose by 8% by 2.84 million to 3.07 million over the same period.

Overall Jet2.com carried 4.6 million passengers on its flights for the six months, which was an increase of 12% year-on-year, although this was below the 13% rise in seat capacity for the season.

Dart Group said that its operating profit for the half-year would be around 10% higher than the same period in 2013.

“However, increased losses are expected in the second half, which are a function of the continued expansion of our seasonal leisure travel operations,” said the company in its statement.

Dart added that winter 2014-15 leisure sales were performing “in line with expectations” and the company’s board was “optimistic that current market expectations for full-year operating profit will be exceeded”.