(Reuters) -Britain’s Jet2 forecast annual operating profit in line with market expectations and announced a share buyback on Wednesday, after strong demand for its flight-only offerings helped the low-cost airline and travel firm post higher interim profit.
Its shares rose 5% in early trading.
The group behind the viral ‘Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday’ campaign has been implementing price increases across its holiday and flight offerings to counter short-notice bookings and broader industry-wide challenges like rising operational costs.
Jet2 is also investing heavily in expanding its operations at London’s Gatwick Airport to cater to demand and reach more travellers, and says that it hopes the new base will become profitable in fiscal 2029.
The Leeds-based firm said that the trend of customers booking their holidays closer to the departure date is persisting.
“Customers may be booking later, but it is clear they still want their well-earned holidays in the sun with a brand they can trust,” CEO Steve Heapy said in a statement that also announced a 100 million pounds ($131.4 million) share buyback.
Analysts at J.P.Morgan flagged that the outlook “remains relatively difficult still near-term” after a slight cut to winter capacity and trends seen in the summer dragging on.
Jet2 reported operating profit growth of 2% to 715.2 million pounds for the six months ended September 30.
The company said in a statement that analysts are expecting operating profit of 453 million pounds, excluding costs related to Gatwick, for the year ending March 31, 2026.
($1 = 0.7612 pounds)
(Reporting by Nithyashree R B and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar)
