Jet2.com Celebrates Record First Year at East Midlands
31st May 2011
Jet2.com Celebrates Record First Year at East Midlands Airport
100,000 passengers fly in first year of operations - numbers planned to quadruple in 2012
Third aircraft to be based at airport for summer 2012
Jet2.com team set for expansion with further recruitment
A year since Jet2.com first took off from East Midlands Airport the airline is flying high – having transported 100,000 passengers to destinations across Europe, and with new aircraft, new routes and new recruitment all on the horizon.
When Jet2.com’s East Midlands’ operation kicked off in May 2010 it had just one aircraft at the base, serving seven resorts. A year on, the airline’s presence at the airport has almost doubled with two large aircraft now flying to 12 locations. New destinations for 2011 include Bodrum in Turkey, Alicante, the Algarve, Majorca and Rhodes, plus a special Christmas Shopping fight to New York in November.
Additional expansion plans are already underway for summer 2012 with a third aircraft now planned to be based at the airport, taking the total number of Jet2.com seats available from East Midlands to an impressive 400,000. The extra aircraft will help service routes to two new sunshine destinations of Malaga and Murcia, along with additional fights to some of the most popular holiday hotspots, including Alicante, Algarve, Majorca and Tenerife, all of which are now on sale for travel in 2012. Flights for next year are already selling at record speed as people plan their holidays well in advance, with the most popular destination being Tenerife, followed by Paphos in Cyprus.
The 2012 expansion will bring an additional 40 jobs to the East Midlands region with opportunities for airport-based staff, cabin crew and pilots – boosting the total number of Jet2.com employees at the base to over 100.
Ian Doubtfire, Managing Director of Jet2.com, commented: “We’re delighted with our first year of operation at East Midlands Airport. The growth we’ve already seen, combined with the growth planned, means we can fly more and more people living in the region where they want to go directly from their local airport. Also, with the airport benefitting from great motorway access, we are finding that our flights are drawing passengers further afield from areas including Lincolnshire and the South. And our competitive pricing, great flight times and generous 22kg baggage allowance have kept passengers coming back time and time again.
“We’re really excited about our plans for 2012 – the extra flights to our most popular Spanish, Balearic and Canary Island resorts will allow us to fly an extra 4,300 passengers a week to the sunshine, while the new routes to Murcia and Malaga, which our customers have demanded, offer passengers an even wider choice of great value holiday destinations.
“Similarly our great value New York Christmas shopping trip, which is East Midlands Airport’s first ever transatlantic route, is proving very popular. Since we launched it a couple of weeks ago many people have already booked their tickets or have chosen our fantastic short break package from sister company Jet2holidays, which includes flights, a three star hotel and free parking at East Midlands all from £589.99 per person.”
Brad Miller, Managing Director, East Midlands Airport said: “With Jet2.com's customer base rapidly growing, its route network increasing twofold and increased capacity to many of its most popular destinations, it's clear that Jet2.com has had an extremely successful first year at East Midlands Airport. We’re now looking forward to a very promising year ahead, with increased job opportunities and expansion plans for the region.”
Jet2.com flies from East Midlands to 14 destinations with prices starting from £29.99 including taxes. For more information about Jet2.com or for bookings, visit
www.Jet2.com, or for further details about Jet2holidays visit
www.Jet2holidays.com.
