In a trading update issued on Wednesday (25 February), the airline and operator said it was shifting its focus onto growing load factor as it pumps additional capacity into its newest bases.
Jet2 will add 1.1 million seats at its Bournemouth, Luton and Gatwick bases over the coming year, with flights from the latter taking off on 26 March. By contrast, additional capacity at its "more established bases" will run to around 400,000 seats, growth of only about 2%.
Nonetheless, Jet2 has 20 million seats on sale for summer 2026 – 8% more than last year – which it claims runs ahead of UK market growth in capacity to short- and mid-haul beach destinations of approximately 5.5%.
Booked passenger numbers for the coming year (year to 31 March 2027) are up by 7.9% year-on-year, and include 260,000 Gatwick passengers. Jet2 said its mix of package holiday bookings as a proportion of its total bookings was so far "broadly in line with last year".
Jet2 will provide a further trading update in April before revealing its preliminary results for the year to 31 March 2026 on 8 July. It expects to report an operating profit "in line with current market expectations", which it estimates to be in the region of £439 million.
It has pre-emptively flagged an approximately £10 million hit attributable to the launch of its Gatwick base, where it recently announced plans to grow capacity by more than a quarter in its second year of operations.
"We are very pleased with how the 2026 financial year is concluding, and are excited about the commencement of operations at London Gatwick," said Jet2.com and Jet2holidays chief executive Steve Heapy.
"For summer 2026, we are satisfied with our bookings to date and remain committed to pricing that is attractive and represents real value to our customers."
