Jet2holidays Limited is a British package holiday provider and tour operator. It was formed in 2007 as a subsidiary of Dart Group plc (now renamed Jet2 plc), and a sister to Jet2.com, the third-largest scheduled airline in the UK. As of 2023, Jet2holidays is the largest tour operator in the United Kingdom, by ATOL licences in 2023.

History

Jet2holidays was founded in June 2007. Upon launch, Jet2holidays provided package holidays from Jet2.com’s six bases in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, Newcastle,

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. It began operations at East Midlands Airport in May 2010 and announced an expansion to Glasgow Airport later that year. In 2014, Blackpool Airport closed, taking the company back down to seven bases. By March 2015, Jet2holidays was providing package holidays to one million customers per year. The following month, it created Jet2CityBreaks, a subsidiary specialising in shorter holidays to its city destinations. In April 2017, Jet2holidays became available from nine bases after the company announced an expansion to Birmingham Airport and

London Stansted Airport Stansted Airport is an international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Uttlesford, Essex, northeast of Central London. As London's Airports of London, third-bu ...

. On 7 June 2017, Jet2holidays launched Jet2Villas, expanding its portfolio of self-catered package holidays. Later that month, it celebrated ten years of operation, and had sold more than seven million package holidays. In October 2017, when Monarch Airlines ceased operations, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays added more than 650,000 seats from former Monarch airports, leading to Jet2holidays overtaking Thomas Cook Tour Operations to become the second-largest tour operator in the UK. In February 2023, Jet2holidays added an extra 500,000 to its operating licence making it the largest tour operator in the UK. This now means it overtakes TUI UK as it will carry 5.8 million passengers in 2023.

Operations

Jet2holidays offers ABTA and ATOL-protected package holidays that comprise accommodation, transfers, baggage and return Jet2.com flights to 55 destinations, focusing on the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. Jet2Villas provides self-catering villas and apartments across Jet2holidays destinations on a similar basis, while Jet2CityBreaks provides ABTA and ATOL-protected holidays with accommodation, baggage and flights to 37 destinations. Jet2holidays sells its products through both its website and independent travel agents. In 2010, TUI Group and Thomas Cook offered Jet2holidays deals through their own travel agent networks. As Jet2holidays grew to become the third-largest tour operator in the UK, both competitors ended these arrangements in 2017. By January 2019, Jet2holidays was partnered with 1,000 travel agents, which were accountable for 25% of its overall bookings.

Awards

* 2018, 2019: Best Short Haul Operator, Travel Weekly Globe Travel Awards. * 2018, 2019: Gold Trusted Service Award, Feefo Trusted Service Awards. * 2018: Travel Brand of the Year,

Which? ''Which?'' is a United Kingdom brand name that promotes informed consumer choice in the purchase of goods and services by testing products, highlighting inferior products or services, raising awareness of consumer rights, and offering indepen ...

Awards. * 2017: Highest-performing tourism organisation, Institute of Customer Service UK Customer Satisfaction Index.

Fraudulent illness claims

In November 2018, Jet2holidays successfully defended itself against four holidaymakers who falsely claimed to suffer gastric illness on a holiday in

Benidorm Benidorm ( , , ) is a municipality in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Known as the “New York City, New York of the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean”, Benidorm has been a tourist destinatio ...

. All four were given a three-month prison sentence suspended for two years, and fines of £750 each. In December 2018, Jet2holidays fought a false compensation claim from two holidaymakers who travelled to

Marmaris Marmaris () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Muğla Province, Turkey. Its area is 906 km2, and its population is 97,818 (2022). It is a port city and tourist resort on the Aegean Sea, Mediterranean coast, along the shorel ...

, Turkey, which resulted in the couple being forced to pay the company £30,000 in damages.

References

External links

Jet2holidays website

Jet2.com website

Dart Group website
{{Tourism in the United Kingdom Companies based in Leeds British companies established in 2007 Travel and holiday companies of the United Kingdom