Published: Fri 31 Mar 2023 at 11:55
Jet2.com and Jet2CityBreaks celebrated the launch of two brand-new city break destinations from London Stansted Airport this morning (Thursday 30th March), after their first flights to the historic cities of Athens and Rome departed from the base.
Today’s busy flights marks the start of the leading leisure airline and UK’s largest operator of city breaks to Europe operating flights and city breaks to the ancient cities for Summer 23 to the end of November. Twice weekly services (Thursday and Sunday) will operate to Athens from London Stansted Airport until 26th November, while four weekly services (Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday) are available to Rome until 27th November.
To mark the special occasion, customers received a VIP welcome when landing in Athens, including branded sweets and cake.
The start of these new services to Athens and Rome gives holidaymakers in the South East easy access to the famous ancient cities, and with weekend and mid-week services available, holidaymakers can enjoy either a long weekend or longer break to the popular city break destinations.
Greece’s capital, Athens, is the beating heart of Ancient Greece and holidaymakers can go history hunting, be stunned by world-renowned sights such as the Acropolis, or enjoy the fantastic nightlife. Jet2CityBreaks has a range of 3-5* hotels available in Athens City, in neighbourhoods such as Koukaki, Monastiraki and Plaka. These locations provide easy access to the best sites, whether that be the flea market in Monastiraki, the nightlife in Psiri, the ‘Old Town’ of Plaka, the world-famous Acropolis or Syntagma Square.
Known as the Eternal city, Italy’s capital offers many sights for holidaymakers to explore. With its spectacular parks, ancient monuments, including the Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and Sistine Chapel, museums, and mouth-watering cuisine, Rome is an iconic city with plenty of rich history just waiting to be discovered.
When travelling to Athens or Rome, customers can choose from a flight-only with leading leisure airline, Jet2.com, or a package option with Jet2CityBreaks available for a low £60 per person deposit. Package options with Jet2CityBreaks include flights with Jet2.com including 22kg free hold luggage and 10kg of free cabin baggage, as well as a choice of hotels in the best locations.
With 42 sun and city destinations on sale for Summer 23 from London Stansted Airport, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays are operating their biggest ever summer programme from the base in 2023 and offering unrivalled choice and flexibility when it comes to booking or enjoying a much-needed getaway. To support the huge programme, the airline and tour operator have increased their fleet at the base this summer. The addition of a 15th based aircraft means the companies will operate over 225 weekly flights from London Stansted Airport in Summer 23 and now have over 2.1 million seats on sale. This represents a capacity increase of more than 10% compared to Summer 22.
Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, said: “We are delighted to see our first flights from London Stansted to Athens and Rome take off today. Feedback from customers and independent travel agents in the South East has been telling us that flights and holidays to Greece and Italy are very much in demand for Summer 23, and we know that Athens and Rome are destinations that customers in the region want to get to. Since putting services on sale to these two destinations from London Stansted Airport, local customers and independent travel agents have been booking getaways to the city break hotspots in their numbers. With 42 sun and city destinations on sale this summer from the base, we pleased to be offering an unrivalled flying programme for Summer 23. As the UK’s largest tour operator, we are giving customers and independent travel agents unrivalled choice when it comes to enjoying a holiday this summer.”
Ciaran Brannigan, London Stansted’s Commercial Director, said: “The launch of new flights to the ancient cities of Athens and Rome are fantastic additions to the extensive range of sun and city destinations already on offer from Jet2.com and Jet2CityBreaks at London Stansted. These services are proving to be extremely popular with passengers from across the East of England and London, and I’m sure demand will increase as more and more people choose to head-off to these amazing cities from their local airport this summer.”
