Who is Jet2.com?
How large is the company?
Jet2.com is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dart Group PLC. Dart Group PLC is an aviation services and distribution group whose shares have been quoted on the London Stock Market since 1988. Dart Group’s annual sales are around £352 (€517) million with net assets of £71 (€104) million. For the financial year to 31 March 2008, turnover is forecast to increase by more than 15%.
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When did the company start?
Jet2.com has been flying commercial aircraft for nearly 30 years, exclusively under the name, Channel Express (Air Services) for the first 20 years. Originally operating up to 14 Dart Herald aircraft, the company introduced, during the 1990s, Lockheed Electras, Airbus A300B4 “Eurofreighters” and in 2001, Boeing 737–300s. Boeing 757–200s were introduced in Autumn 2005. Charter passenger operations started in 2001, offering high quality corporate and specialist services. While historically based at Bournemouth on the South coast, the full operation and headquarters moved to Leeds Bradford Airport in West Yorkshire during 2006.
Jet2.com has now flown over 7 million passengers. We commenced our low cost operations in February 2003, flying daily from Leeds Bradford International Airport, to and from Amsterdam. During 2003 scheduled flights were operated to 7 European business, city break and sun destinations, carrying more than 360,000 passengers in our first year. Now 21 Boeing 737-300 aircraft and 8 Boeing 757-200s (all of which are owned by the company), are located across our 6 UK bases and fly to 77 top sun, city and ski destinations in more than 12 European countries, 6 Mediterranean islands as well as the Canary Islands; nearly 40 routes alone are offered from our headquarters at Leeds Bradford Airport.
From Belfast International Airport we also fly 9 popular European and 2 domestic routes.
On 29th September 2004, Jet2.com announced its second base, Manchester Airport. In doing so Jet2.com unveiled the largest ever single commitment made to Manchester Airport by any scheduled airline. A number of aircraft are based at Manchester serving 18 international routes. Routes from Newcastle Airport were launched in June 2005 and Jet2.com currently offers 12 exciting destinations including Bergen, Cork, Krakow, Menorca, Murcia, Pisa and Tenerife. Multiple daily services are offered to London Gatwick.
Exactly a year to the date that Jet2.com announced low cost services from Manchester, it also unveiled plans to open its 5th base, at Blackpool International Airport. The announcement, on 29th September 2005, brought with it the introduction of flights to Murcia, Palma & Belfast. Within 12 months the choice of destinations increased from 3 to 9.
Edinburgh International Airport was announced as Jet2.com’s 6th Northern base. Flights to Spain and Italy commenced in Spring 2006. Please view our timetables here
In terms of e–commerce, the first seats went on sale online in November 2002. Now 97% of seats are currently booked on–line through our dedicated website, which also offers links for the sale of very competitively priced insurance, car hire, hotels, holiday villas, airport transfers and travel exchange. Extra passenger services are continually being introduced. These include self-check in, including pre-allocation of seats and Jet2Plus offering an enhanced travel experience.
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Awards
Readers of two of the UK’s top travel trade and consumer publications have voted Jet2.com their favourite British airline.
Firstly, a poll of more than 25,000 ‘members’ of Holiday Which? magazine resulted in Jet2.com being crowned the Best Scheduled British Airline, and in addition the second best globally, that passengers are most likely to recommend to a friend.
The survey proved that Jet2.com leads the low cost airline market in key areas such as convenience and standards of service.
In addition, the up–market title for independent travellers, Wanderlust, recently voted Jet2.com, the top UK low cost operator and, in fact, second best only to an Australian–based low cost airline (with only 2% of votes in the balance).
Jet2.com is also proud to have won the following prestigious awards:
- Best Newcomer to Tourism in the White Rose Awards 2004 – a very prestigious award in the Yorkshire Region – sponsored by the Yorkshire Tourist Board.
- Best Short Haul UK Airline – for customer satisfaction – voted by the readers of the Guardian and Observer newspapers – May 04
- World’s most punctual airline operating into Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport during 2003
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