Jet2.com and Jet2holidays celebrate first flight from tenth UK base

Today marks another major milestone in Jet2.com and Jet2holidays’ continued success stories, as the leading leisure airline and tour operator launched its inaugural flight from Bristol Airport this morning.

The full flight departed from Bristol Airport to Majorca with holidaymakers jetting off on a much-needed holiday to the popular sunshine destination. This inaugural flight will be followed by another flight to Menorca which takes off this afternoon. 

To celebrate the first flight taking off from Bristol Airport, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays laid on the type of VIP customer experience that has resulted in the companies winning multiple awards. This included a red-carpet welcome, a Spanish guitarist and dancers to entertain holidaymakers as they waited to board the aircraft, as well as goodie bags. In addition to that, the first customers to check-in, Allison and Stuart Rees, a nurse and police officer from Bridgend, were surprised with a free holiday to Hotel Pineda SPLASH in the Costa Brava, and the first 20 customers to check-in all received free flights vouchers.

The start of operations from Bristol Airport comes as the Balearic Islands (Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza) and Madeira were all added to the Green Travel List for customers travelling from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Customers across the South West of England and South Wales have plenty of choice and flexibility when it comes to enjoying a much-needed holiday to these destinations in Summer 21, with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays operating multiple weekly flights to many destinations meaning customers can book the duration of holiday they like.

Following the recent publication of the Green Travel List last, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays reported an enormous surge in bookings from customers wanting to travel in July and August from Bristol Airport. Despite that, the leading tour operator to destinations across the Mediterranean and Canary Islands is continuing to urge the Government to follow its own data and add more safe destinations to the Green List.  

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays has a total of 40 sun, leisure city and ski destinations on sale across the Mediterranean, Canary Islands and Europe from Bristol Airport. 

As well as booking and travelling on award-winning flights and ATOL protected package holidays to this huge range of destinations from Bristol Airport, customers in the South West of England and South Wales can now get to experience and enjoy the company’s VIP customer service which has seen Jet2.com and Jet2holidays win high-profile accolades before and during the pandemic, such as Which? Recommended Provider and TripAdvisor’s Best Airline – UK and Top 10 Airlines of the World. 

This VIP customer service includes friendly flight times and a generous 22kg baggage allowance through a flight-only booking with Jet2.com, which has seen the airline win five accolades at the 2020 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice® Awards for Airlines. Holidaymakers get to enjoy that very same VIP customer service with in-resort Customer Helpers, transfers, and ATOL protection with the UK’s second largest tour operator, Jet2holidays. As well as a choice of thousands of 2-5 star hotels, customers can take advantage of millions of Free Child Places which are available for customers across the UK this summer.

The launch of flights and holidays from Bristol Airport demonstrates Jet2.com and Jet2holidays’ continued confidence in its product and proposition, and further underlines the company’s long-term ambition to become the UK’s leading and best leisure travel business. 

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays’ arrival at Bristol Airport has resulted in significant investment for the region. More than 200 new jobs have been created with roles including flight deck and cabin crew, engineers, and ground operations colleagues.

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, said: “This is an incredibly exciting day for Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, as we expand our award-winning flights and holidays to our tenth UK base at Bristol Airport. We have been ready to get going for some time now, and last week’s announcement from the Government means that customers can finally enjoy real package holidays and our award-winning customer service from Bristol Airport. We are looking forward to enjoying enormous success at our newest base, and the response to the launch from customers and independent travel agents has been outstanding. That said, we know customers want to travel to more destinations and the UK Government still has a long way to go to reopen international travel properly and satisfy customer demand both from Bristol Airport and across the UK. We continue to urge the Government to reopen international travel properly, rather than adding just a few destinations and hoping everyone will be happy with that.”

He added: “We have built up a strong reputation for leading the industry when it comes to looking after customers and we will be doing the same thing at Bristol Airport. We are making an enormous economic contribution to the region through the creation of more than 200 jobs at the airport, and I know that every single colleague is thrilled about finally getting our operation up and running.”

Carl Symonds, Station Manager for Jet2.com and Jet2holidays at Bristol Airport: “Today has been a long time coming and we are all so pleased to be finally taking customers away on their much-needed holidays. Our first flight was full of happy holidaymakers and our team are here to deliver that day in, day out. We cannot wait to show customers what we are all about, so that they can relax, enjoy our customer service and jet away on a happy and healthy holiday.”

Graeme Gamble, Chief Operating Officer, Bristol Airport said: “Today is one of the major milestone events in the history of the Airport in welcoming  Jet2.com and Jet2holidays to Bristol Airport.  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.  We know from our customer research there is pent-up demand for air travel in the region. This is a major step forwards for Bristol Airport recovering from the impact of the pandemic with the airline’s base at Bristol creating 200 job opportunities initially and this number increasing as the base grows, providing significant investment and an increase in the choice of destinations and holidays available to customers in the region.  We will continue to work closely with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays on the strategic partnership and develop further opportunities in the future.”