Luton becomes the airline and operator’s 13th base in the UK and Ireland, and follows the launch of its Bournemouth base in February. It means four of Leeds-headquartered Jet2’s past five base launches – Stansted, Bristol, Liverpool, Bournemouth and now Luton – have now been in the south.
Jet2 will base two Airbus A321neo aircraft at Luton airport, where it has put 430,000 seats on sale for the summer across up to 36 weekly flights to 17 destinations. They span the Canaries, the Balearics and mainland Spain, Turkey, Greece, Italy, the Algarve and Madeira.
Two of the 17 destinations – Spain’s Girona and Italy’s Verona – are Jet2 exclusives at Luton.
It has also put its first winter schedule on sale at Luton, which features eight destinations – Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Alicante, Faro, Madeira and Antalya.
Jet2 named Luton as its 13th base in November, and claims the response to its decision to expand it flights and holiday programme to more holidaymakers and agents in London, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire has so far been "phenomenal".
The brand said the launch of its Luton base had created more than 125 new flight deck, cabin crew, engineering and ground operations roles, and represented a "significant investment" in the region.
Steve Heapy, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays chief executive, said: "Our formula is proven and has been driving phenomenal demand from customers and independent travel agents since we announced our arrival at London Luton airport.
"We are excited to be bringing our proposition to holidaymakers from across the region, and are looking forward to enjoying enormous success at our newest base, just as we always do when we start operations at a new airport base."
Heapy added: "Just a few months ago, we began operations from Bournemouth airport – our 12th UK airport base. This significant expansion, along with our inaugural flight from London Luton airport today [Tuesday 1 April] demonstrates just how confident we are in our award-winning product.”
Alberto Martin, Luton airport chief executive, said Jet2’s arrival had created "huge excitement" among the millions of holidaymakers who fly from the airport each year, offering them greater choice.
