Jet2.com and Jet2holidays on Wednesday (12 November) named Gatwick as its 14th UK base and has put 29 destinations on sale from Gatwick for summer 2026, with the first flight departing for Tenerife on 26 March.
The full list of destinations includes mainland Spain, the Canary and Balearic Islands, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Malta, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria and Cyprus. Jet2 will station five new Airbus A321neo aircraft at Gatwick, with a six aircraft – based overseas – also serving the airport.
In a trading update, which served as a precursor to Wednesday morning's base announcement, Jet2 warned "start-up costs" to resource and promote its programme from Gatwick would initially limit its profitability there.
Laying out its rationale, Jet2 said in 2027, it would substitute three short-term leased aircraft into its existing bases to release Airbus A321neos for the Gatwick operation, adding: "The following year, the higher cost short-term leased aircraft will be replaced with new A321neo aircraft from its pre-existing Airbus ‘delivery stream’.
“The group expects the London Gatwick operation to move into profitability in financial year 2029 and to deliver meaningful profit growth thereafter."
'It will be great value'
Speaking to TTG from Gatwick on Wednesday, Heapy said: "We'll be competitive with other airlines on price. With it being such a big catchment area, there should be enough demand.
"A lot of people know who we are since our ‘Nothing beats a Jet2holiday’ campaign in the summer. A lot of people have been asking us to operate from this airport. It’s something agents have been asking for. We will have to price the market.”
However, he added: “It’s hard to predict. Whatever the price, it will be great value.”
Jet2 will face staunch competition at Gatwick from carriers like easyJet, which has some 70 aircraft based at Gatwick, as well as British Airways, which operates its Euroflyer programme out of Gatwick.
'A really big opportunity'
Heapy, who insisted Gatwick had been Jet2’s radar for years, said the decision represented “a really big opportunity” for Jet2 and travel agents in the airport's catchment. "The slots have not been available until now," he continued. "The airport has now managed to release some slots."
Asked how quickly Jet2 would, or could, expand at Gatwick, Heapy said: “We have to see what comes up. It remains a very busy airport. We’ve done that [expand] at every airport. In 2017, when we launched at Stansted, we had six aircraft and that’s now 16. We now have 14 aircraft at Birmingham, we had four when we started in 2017.
“We have 146 aircraft on order. We’ve received 23 so far. That is the great thing about [having] aircraft – we can react to the market.”
Heapy also ruled out cutting capacity at Jet2’s other London bases – Luton or Stansted – as a result of launching at Gatwick, and after freezing its operator Jet2holidays' Atol for the coming year.
On Jet2holidays’ Atol, Heapy said: “We will see regarding the Atol. We do not increase our Atol each year. We want to get it right. We don’t want to make it look like we’re not good at planning."
