Jet2.com will use its 100th aircraft to shore up current operations rather than expanding into new destinations.
Speaking in Seattle after the official handing over of its 34th new Boeing 737-800NG aircraft, chief executive Steve Heapy said the airline and sister business Jet2holidays have seen considerable growth since the airline’s launch in 2002.
While he added the airline will most likely introduce a couple of new routes for the summer, he said the businesses main focus is on increasing frequencies wherever possible at its nine existing bases
Heapy said: "We will be mainly touching routes where we’ve got some flights that are going to a destination four, five or six times a week and we want to go to seven.
"With new routes we might launch one or two every year but we’ve not decided where for summer 2019."
He added he was also keen to grow the current bases, with Stansted and Birmingham both being name checked as two of the fastest growing.
Heapy said in Stansted, Jet2.com has already doubled the number of aircraft based there from the original six when they launched there in 2017 while Birmingham has gone from four to 10 based aircraft in the same period.
"What we want to do is strengthen our current nine bases and make those as strong as we can in the short term. We’re not looking at anymore bases," he added.
Heapy was also relaxed that a Brexit deal would be struck in time for the UK’s departure from the EU on March 29.
He added the current invective from both sides was to be expected as ongoing negotiation tactics.
But he argued the airline was better placed than some of its rivals to ride out the storm if Britain leaves the EU without a deal and the economy takes a turn for the worse.
Heapy said: "If it comes to a tough time ... we have a lot of cash in the bank and we can continue operations for a lot longer than some of our competitors."
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