Holiday firm Jet2 slams “inexcusable” airport chaos which has caused misery for passengers

Holiday firm Jet2 has criticised “inexcusable” airport chaos as the group warned its current year performance will depend on how quickly services can return to normal.

The group said it has been “directly impacted” by the disruption as it laid bare the troubles caused by airports and suppliers being “woefully ill-prepared and poorly resourced”.

It said customers have had to endure a “very much poorer experience” than they should have, with passengers hit by flight delays, cancellations, long queues, baggage handling problems and a lack of onboard catering supplies.

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The group's full year operating loss reduced by 4% to £323.9m and the company entered into an agreement with Airbus for up to 75 new A321 neo aircraft, of which 60 are now firm orders.

The statement added: "Pleasingly, more than 35% of our Summer 22 bookings are completely new customers to Jet2 and package holiday bookings are displaying a materially higher mix of the total up 13ppts.

"Although we invested well ahead of the Summer 22 season to ensure we had adequate resources to be able to operate efficiently, we have been directly impacted by the broader disruption seen across the aviation sector and its supply chains.

Jet2 executive chairman Philip Meeson said: “Most of our 10 UK base airports have been woefully ill-prepared and poorly resourced for the volume of customers they could reasonably expect, as have other suppliers, such as onboard caterers and providers of airport PRM (Passengers with Reduced Mobility) services.

“Inexcusable, bearing in mind our flights have been on sale for many months and our load factors are quite normal.

“Theirs and the ground handling suppliers’ often atrocious customer service, long queues for security search, lack of staff and congestion in baggage handling areas, and the consequent airport congestion, together with the frequent lack of onboard catering supplies, have each contributed to a very much poorer experience at the start and finish of our customers’ holidays than they were entitled to expect.

“This difficult return to normal operations has occurred simply because of the lack of planning, preparedness and unwillingness to invest by many airports and associated suppliers.”