Jet2 posts an increase in profits as passenger numbers hit 17.7m

It said the price of its package holidays rose by 11 per cent on average to £830 over the year as it sought to recoup soaring cost inflation.

Jet2 said customers will see further “modest” increases in flight-only and package holiday deals over the summer, but insisted deals will remain “attractive” due to a late booking trend.

“Passengers are currently booking much closer to departure and therefore pricing for our flight-only and package holiday products must remain attractive,” it said.

It added: “As ever, we remain mindful of the current macro-economic and geo-political environments and how these may influence future consumer spending patterns.

“However, we continue to believe that the end-to-end package holiday is a resilient and popular product which remains high on the priority list for our customers, even during uncertain economic times.”

The group said it has expanded its holiday programme by 12.3 per cent over the summer, with package holiday bookings up 7 per cent and flight-only sales 16 per cent higher.

Jet2 said it is too early to give an outlook for profits in the current financial year “given the late booking profile and the peak summer months of July, August and September not yet complete, plus the majority of winter 2024-2025 seat capacity still to sell”.

In a statement to accompany the results, Robin Terrell, Non-Executive Chairman of Jet2, said: “I am extremely pleased with how our leisure travel business has performed in the two years since the pandemic.

"Not only have we capitalised on the growth opportunities presented, with the business having nearly doubled its pre-Covid revenue, we have also remained true to our values of carefully investing to secure our long-term growth aspirations, whilst ensuring we maintain financial stability and flexibility.

He added: “With this in mind, and demonstrating our confidence in our future growth plans, we recently exercised the remaining 36 purchase rights of our Airbus aircraft order originally announced in late 2021, meaning we now have a firm delivery stream of 146 A321neo aircraft through to 2035.

"This valuable long-term order provides favourable operating cost efficiencies and enables us to confidently plan for the long-term as we continue to expand our footprint and the range of new and exciting destinations, ensuring we can continue to delight our customers for years to come.

"In addition, our ‘people, service, profits’ philosophy is timeless and actively guides our engagement with our most valuable asset, our colleagues.

"Combined, these qualities provide a strong foundation to continue on our exciting journey in delivering on our long-term strategy, to be the UK's leading and best leisure travel business.”