2 September 2021
Jet2 plc ("the Company")
Annual General Meeting Statement
At the Company's Annual General Meeting today, Philip Meeson, Executive Chairman, will make the following statement:
"Following the UK Government's decision to allow quarantine-free travel to amber list destinations for the fully vaccinated from 19 July, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays have been flying to 32 green and amber destinations, with a programme representing approximately 55% of our pre-Covid Summer 19 capacity. In addition, we were also delighted to successfully commence operations from our new Bristol base.
Unsurprisingly, given the continuing short-term uncertainty resulting from the UK Government's three weekly review of its traffic light system, customers are booking significantly closer to departure for Summer 21. Despite the limited booking visibility, pleasingly, we have generated positive financial contribution from the flying to date, supported by our quick to market, flexible operating model.
The slower momentum for Winter 21/22 bookings which we reported in our Preliminary Results in early July has remained. As a result, bookings have yet to match our on-sale seat capacity and therefore pricing for both our leisure travel products - end-to-end package holidays with Jet2holidays and flight-only seats with Jet2.com - will need to remain consistently enticing. The overall Winter 21/22 capacity remains under continuous review.
For Summer 22, we plan to fly to all our popular leisure destinations. Bookings to date are encouraging, with average load factors at the same point ahead of Summer 19 and package holiday customer numbers as a proportion of total departing customers showing a material increase. Therefore, we remain optimistic that Summer 22 will be a considerable improvement on both Summer 20 and Summer 21.
On 31 August we were pleased to announce our new aircraft order with Airbus for up to 60 A321 neo aircraft. In our opinion, the Airbus A321 neo is the most efficient and environmentally friendly aircraft in its class today.
We believe opportunities for financially strong, resilient and trusted operators will only increase as travel restrictions are lifted. As at 30 August, our 'Own Cash' balance (excluding customer deposits) was £1.52bn (4 July 2021: £1.46bn), an increase of £0.46bn on 31 March 2021 (£1.06bn).
We are confident that once normality returns, our Customers will be determined to enjoy the wonderful experience of a well-deserved Jet2 holiday and that Jet2.com and Jet2holidays will continue to have a thriving future, taking millions of UK holidaymakers annually, to the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and to European Leisure Cities.
The Board will provide a further trading update on publication of its interim results on 18 November 2021."
For further information please contact:
Jet2 plc Philip Meeson, Executive Chairman | Tel: 0113 239 7692 | ||
Gary Brown, Group Chief Financial Officer | |||
Cenkos Securities plc - Nominated Adviser Katy Birkin/Camilla Hume | Tel: 020 7397 8900 | ||
Canaccord Genuity - Joint Broker Adam James | Tel: 020 7523 8000 | ||
Jefferies International Limited - Joint Broker Ed Matthews | Tel: 020 7029 8000 | ||
Buchanan - Financial PR Richard Oldworth | Tel: 020 7466 5000 |
Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information as stipulated under the UK version of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (2014/596) which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended and supplemented from time to time, until the release of this announcement.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy Policy.