Jet2 PLC on Thursday said trading is in line with expectations, with the firm hailing ‘late booking momentum’ in the summer season, though it opted against offering annual guidance.

The Leeds-based airline and package holiday company said summer 2024 seat capacity is 12% higher on-year at just below 17.2 million seats. Capacity is up slightly from what it reported at the time of its interim results in July.

‘The months of July and August experienced strong late booking momentum with September currently showing a similar trend,’ it said, adding that its summer 2024 average load factor is now 1.2 percentage points behind the prior year at the same point.

Jet2 said booked to date package holiday customers are up by 8% and flight-only passengers are up 17%.

‘The continued demand momentum has served to offset softer flight-only net ticket yields, although package holiday pricing remains resilient and continues to show a modest increase on last year,’ the Leeds-based firm added.

Looking to the winter season, it said the average load factor is 0.8 percentage points higher on-year at the same point, with seat capacity up 15% to just above 5.1 million seats. Looking even further ahead, seat capacity for summer 2025 is currently roughly 6.4% higher, with an average load factor ‘at this very early stage slightly ahead of summer 2024 at the same point’.

Jet2 added: ‘Year to date the business continues to trade in line with management’s expectations. However, given the late booking profile, the remaining summer months of September and October not yet complete, plus the majority of Winter 2024/25 seat capacity still to sell, it remains premature to provide definitive guidance as to group profitability for the financial year ending 31 March 2025. Consequently, we will provide a further update at the interim results on 21 November 2024.’

Jet2 shares rose 1.2% to 1,473.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

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