Jet2 has today announced that it will be launching its 10th UK base at Bristol Airport from April 2021. The British low cost leisure airline will base 3 Boeing 737-800 aircraft at Bristol flying these following planned routes:
Almeria, Antalya, Dalaman, Corfu, Faro, Fuerteventura, Girona, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Ibiza, Izmir, Kalamata, Kefalonia, Kos, Lanzarote, Madeira, Menorca, Mytilene (Lesvos), Naples, Palma de Mallorca, Preveza, Reus, Rhodes, Santorini, Skiathos, Tenerife-South, Thessaloniki, Verona and Zante. Ski routes for Winter 2021 to Geneva, Grenoble and Salzburg.
The airline will fly a mix of summer holiday and winter ski routes taking up many routes that used to be flown by Thomas Cook before its demise in 2018. This is great news for Bristol Airport and travellers giving them more choice, as well as something new for enthusiasts to see at Bristol Airport.
Chief executive Steve Heapy said: This is an incredibly exciting day for Jet2.com and Jet2holidays. We know how much demand there is, because we have been listening to customers and independent travel agents in the region for some time.
We are delighted to be bringing them the news that they have been looking forward to, meaning that they can finally enjoy real package holidays from Bristol Airport.
The expansion has created 200 jobs for flight and cabin crew, engineers and ground operations staff.
Jet2s summer 2021 programme from Bristol includes four exclusive routes: Izmir in Turkey; Kalamata and Lesvos, in Greece; and Costa de Almeria in Spain. There will be up to 56 weekly flights to destinations in mainland Spain, the Canary and Balearic Islands, Greece, Turkey, Italy and Portugal, representing 450,000 seats on sale. The inaugural flight is due to depart for Lanzarote on April 1.
Heapy said the announcement of its tenth base reflects Jet2s long-term strategy to become the UKs leading leisure travel business. We cannot wait to launch operations, and we look forward to taking holidaymakers from Bristol Airport on a package holiday they can trust, he added.
Dave Lees, chief executive of Bristol Airport, added: Never has the time been more important for the region to look to the future in a post-Covid world, and Jet2.com and Jet2holidays have shown the confidence in the strength of the region to open up their tenth UK operating base at Bristol Airport.
Thanks to Jet2, Ashley Quint and Sean M on Twitter for their help with this article.
Simon has been writing aviation articles for nearly 10 years and is the senior article writer at Fresh Aviation, with a background in aviation and a commercial pilot Simon knows his stuff in the aviation world. Simon has spoken on BBC Radio, contributed to Bristol Post and has various aviation articles on various websites.