Low-cost leisure airline Jet2 swung back to profit for the first half of its financial year as revenue jumped by 730% compared to last year.
The travel group reported pre-tax profit of £505.0m in the six months to 30 September 2022, up from a loss of £195.1m a year earlier when the industry was affected by Covid-19 restrictions.
This year’s first-half profit was also 44% ahead of the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.
Revenue grew to £3.6bn, compared with £429.6m in the half-year to 30 September 2021.
It came as the industry had a difficult return to normal operations, with long airport delays and thousands of flights cancelled over the summer. Jet2 said that these problems resulted in delay and compensation costs for the company of more than £50.0m.
Jet2 chairman Philip Meeson said that the group’s leisure travel business had continued its “encouraging recovery” following the reopening of international travel in early 2022.
He added that “strong customer demand, in particular for package holidays, plus a robust pricing environment and considered cost control” were behind its improved financial performance compared to recent Covid impacted summer seasons, as well as pre-Covid summer 2019.
Seat capacity was up 14% against summer 2019 and the business achieved an average load factor of 90.7%.
