Article
Jet2holidays warms the City after Britons flee the gloom
Published: Sat 10 Oct 2015 at 14:00
Updated: Sat 10 Oct 2015 at 16:44
Here’s a great piece of coverage on Jet2holidays in the Evening Standard following our latest trading update. Check out our biggest and best ever choice of holidays at www.jet2holidays.com
Nearly a million people went abroad with Jet2holidays this summer, leaving the owner of the package holidays group on course to smash City profit hopes today.
Dart Group said profits for the full year would "materially exceed expectations" despite an anticipated weaker second half, sending shares in the travel group climbing almost 3%, or 12.75p, to 477.25p.
In the past year, Dart Group's share price has more than doubled.
Operating profits for the first half to September 30 will be at least 60% ahead of last year's £89.4 million, the firm said.
Poor weather at home encouraged greater numbers of Brits to travel abroad this summer and airlines and holiday companies have had a boom in bookings this summer. Jet2holidays took 936,000 on holiday, a rise of 21% on the previous year.
However, the company's airline Jet2.com saw passenger numbers dip by 1.9% in the six months to 30 September, after the airline cut capacity on certain routes. As a result of the reduced seat capacity and a surge in demand the airline achieved a record load factor of 94.1%, with the average ticket yield up by 16.4%.
Problems with the Greek economy at the start of the summer and the tragic deaths of 35 British tourists in Tunisia failed to deter British holidaymakers from travelling abroad, as had been feared. Indeed many tour operators, including Jet2holidays, attributed the resurgence in popularity of package holidays with those issues, saying that holidaymakers wanted the certainty of knowing who was responsible for getting them home, should disaster hit.
Jet2holidays had to send three aeroplanes to Tunisia to bring back more than 1200 holidaymakers in June. Winter 2015-16 leisure travel bookings for package holiday and flight only products also continue to perform in line with expectations, the company said.
“It is now apparent that group performance for the full year ending 31 March 2016 will materially exceed current market expectations," Dart said.
