Jet2 owner confident about its future prospects

The firm said it has taken significant action to improve its available liquidity in the last three months and will continue to do so, to ensure that it is best placed to respond swiftly as UK Government travel restrictions are relaxed and customer confidence recovers.

In annual results, the firm said: "We remain 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 group reported a record year for the 12 months to March 31. Profit before hedge ineffectiveness, foreign exchange revaluation and tax from continuing operations rose 50 per cent to £264m.

After accounting for a net exceptional charge of £108m due to hedge ineffectiveness as a direct result of Covid-19 and an £8m loss on foreign exchange revaluations, pre-tax profit from continuing operations fell 11 per cent to £148m.

Despite the fact that Jet2.com had to suspend its flying programme in mid-March due to the travel restrictions imposed by governments across Europe as a result of the spread of Covid-19, the leisure travel business still achieved passenger growth of 14 per cent.

Demand for its "Real Package Holidays" brand continued to grow, as Jet2holidays took 3.77 million customers on package holidays, an increase of 19 per cent.