- Revenue up 24% to £4.4 billion
- 7% increase in seat capacity
- Average price of a Jet2holidays package holiday up 11%
Shares in Jet2 (JET2:AIM) were down more than 3% to £10.95 in morning trading despite the UK package holidays business reporting a 47% rise in pre-tax profits of £660.5 million for the first half of the year ending 30 September.
Flight only net ticket yield per passenger sector was 18% higher at £124.09 compared to the same year ago period.
Seat capacity increased 7% compared to last summer and the business achieved an average load factor of 90.7% with higher margin per passenger Package Holiday mix of total departing passengers up 4.9 percentage points to 70.8%.
It was good news for shareholders also as the leisure travel operator raised its interim dividend per share by 33% to 4p.
Russ Mould investment director at AJ Bell said: 'There was evidence of the strong post-Covid rebound in overseas travel in package holiday firm Jet2’s latest results. Although there were also indications that this may be difficult to sustain with bookings having slowed in recent weeks.'
The leisure travel operator warned of ‘slower bookings in recent weeks’ which may have spooked investors.
However, Jet2 said there was a 21% increase in on sale seat capacity to 4.49 million for the Winter 2023/24 season.
INCREASE TO JET2HOLIDAYS PACKAGE
It was not good news for existing and potential Jet2 customers as the leisure travel operator announced a 11% increase in the average price of a Jet2holidays package holiday to £855.
Jet2 also said it was ‘directly impacted by the broader disruption caused by the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) failure, Rhodes wildfires and flooding in Skiathos’ earlier in the year which caused a £14 million loss.
Jet2 manages to shake off Greek wildfire disaster with upbeat trading
Damian Brewer, analyst at Canaccord Genuity was upbeat about the UK package holidays business (but with an air of caution): ‘Booking momentum has slowed but pricing remains robust, and we see second half loss similar to 2018/19 but with 53% more capacity, reducing winter profit before tax loss per seat by 33%. For full year 2025 (summer 2024) we expect 9-10% expansion but higher costs and a more price sensitive UK consumer.
‘We see a lower profit before tax. We expect Jet2 to continue its long-term focus on 'People, Service and Profits' - utilising the best people for a total focus on 'Customer First’ proposition combined with using its fortress balance sheet to invest purposefully.’Jet2 shares are up 16% year-to-date.
DISCLAIMER: Financial services company AJ Bell referenced in this article owns Shares magazine. The author of this article (Sabuhi Gard) and the editor (Martin Gamble) own shares in AJ Bell.
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