We are marking another major milestone in our continued success story today, by announcing the launch of flights and holidays from Bristol Airport, which will become ourtenth UK base.

We have put an exciting 33 destinations on sale from Bristol Airport today. This includes a fantastic Summer 21 programme, with local holidaymakers able to choose from 29 summer hotspots - including FOUR NEW AND EXCLUSIVE destinations from Bristol Airport (Izmir in Turkey; KalamataandLesvosin Greece; and Costa de Almeria in Mainland Spain). With 11 destinations also on sale for Winter 21/22, holidaymakers in the region are offered superb choice and flexibility when it comes to reaching the best sun and ski destinations across Europe, the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean.

In our first summer of operations from Bristol Airport, we will operate up to 56 weekly flights. A fleet of three based aircraft will fly customers to a wide choice of destinations across Mainland Spain, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Portugal and Madeira (full list of destinations below). This is a huge programme in our first summer of operations from Bristol Airport, representing 450,000 seats on sale. Our first flights will depart from Bristol Airport on 1st April, with our inaugural flight taking happy holidaymakers to Lanzarote.

Today's announcement demonstrates our continued confidence in our product and proposition, and further underlines our long-term ambition to become the leading UK leisure travel business.

Our arrival at Bristol Airport means significant investment for the region. More than 200 NEW JOBS will be created with roles including flight and cabin crew, engineers and ground operations staff.

We have capped off a week of praise for how we have handled the Covid-19 pandemic, after Jet2holidays was rewarded with the title of 'Best Large Tour Operator' by the Scottish Passenger Agents' Association (SPAA).

The award was given at a virtual event held by the Scottish Passenger Agents' Association (SPAA), to recognise individuals and companies who have responded well to the pandemic.

Jet2holidays was recognised by SPAA president Joanne Dooey for "its excellent communication throughout the past six months, which has greatly helped members. Whether switching destinations, adding capacity to destinations with a travel corridor, or helping with amendments and refunds, this company was the easiest to deal with."

The award comes on the back of two other successes this week. On Monday, Jet2holidays was named a World Travel Leader for our positive response to the pandemic at the annual World Travel Leaders Awards as part of London Travel Week 2020. According to the judges, this was driven by Jet2holidays' "positive approach to refunds and cancellations."

In addition, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays received praise in the Daily Telegraph. In an article headlined 'In praise of Jet2 and other travel companies having a good pandemic', the newspaper's consumer correspondent wrote: "Top of the list are, indeed, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, which have kept up contact with customers and given refunds without a fuss. Jet2 was voted best short-haul airline by readers in the Telegraph Travel Awards last year, and customer service is clearly a priority."

This approach to customer service has seen us continue to win praise from customers, consumer organisations, media, and independent travel agents for how we have looked after customers during the pandemic.

This includes Jet2.com and Jet2holidays ranking as the number one and two travel firms for providing refunds, according to a travel refund cancellation survey of more than 77,000 people by MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE). In addition, Jet2.com was recognised as the only UK airline to promptly provide refunds without significant backlogs, following a review by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: "During a time where there has been so much uncertainty, we have continued to put our customer-first strategy ahead of everything else. Put simply, this approach is the right thing to do, and we know that customers and independent travel agents will remember how we treated them during the pandemic. We would like to thank everyone who has given us such positive feedback and we can assure them that we will continue to do the right thing by them."

At the Company's Annual General Meeting today, Philip Meeson, Executive Chairman, will make the following statement:

"After grounding our aircraft fleet in mid-March, we were pleased to resume operations on 15 July, gradually ramping up Summer 2020 flying to approximately 40% of our planned destinations for August, ensuring we could provide as many of our customers as possible with their well-deserved and eagerly anticipated summer holidays.

Whilst there have been setbacks, such as the imposition of quarantines and evolving guidance from the UK Government, we have been satisfied with the average load factors and financial contribution achieved to date and will continue to add further capacity, as appropriate, for the remainder of Summer 2020, supported by our quick to market, flexible operating model.

Winter 20/21 forward bookings have yet to match our revised on-sale seat capacity, with customer bookings displaying a shorter lead time than in previous years. Therefore, pricing for both our leisure travel products - end-to-end package holidays with Jet2holidays and flight-only seats with Jet2.com - will need to remain consistently enticing.

For Summer 2021, we plan to fly to all our popular leisure destinations with an appropriate, tailored level of service, which we anticipate will be close to Summer 2019 seat capacity levels. Bookings to date are encouraging, with average load factors ahead of the same point last year and package holiday customer numbers as a proportion of total departing customers showing a material increase.

As at 28 August, our Total Cash balance was £1,064m, with an 'Own Cash' balance (excluding customer deposits) of £629m (at 31 March 2020: £1,387m and £520m respectively). Additionally, the Bank of England Covid Corporate Financing Facility of up to £300m of funding is currently unutilised. We will continue to take every step necessary to preserve cash and enhance liquidity to ensure both Jet2.com and Jet2holidays are equipped to deal with this most challenging of trading environments and also best positioned for a return to full operations in a stable financial position, to the benefit of all stakeholders. The Board will provide a further trading update on publication of its interim results on 19 November 2020."

Following the sale of our Distribution and Logistics business, Fowler Welch, earlier in the year, the Company has applied to Companies House to change its name to Jet2 plc reflecting the continued focus on its longer-term strategy of growing its leisure travel business.

We are delighted to announce that Stephen Heapy is appointed Chief Executive Officer of Jet2 plc. Philip Meeson will remain Executive Chairman.

This is an exciting day for our Company. Our business has evolved significantly over the last decade and we believe now is the right time to align our Group name with the brand under which our business is delivered. Whilst what we are called is changing, the way in which we do business will not alter as our "Customer First" strategy will remain consistent. The combined power of our proposition, product and people is what will fuel our ongoing success, we constantly seek to improve our customers' holiday choice, experience and enjoyment, giving us the greatest opportunity to retain and attract new customers - the key to continuing profitable growth!

Our long-term ambition therefore remains - To be the Leading UK Leisure Travel Business."

For the rest of the statement and further information please click here: https://tinyurl.com/yyxzmemr

Jet2.com has once again soared to success in the 2020 Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice Awards for Airlines, scooping an unprecedented FIVE awards and winning global recognition.

We have once again appeared in the Top 10 Airlines in the World category, appearing 5th in the list, up from 9th position last year. It is the third year running that we have received this accolade, meaning customers recognise us as one of the very best airlines in the world.

In addition, we have also been named the Best Airline - UK and Best Low-Cost Airline - Europe for the fourth year in a row, as well as Best Economy Class - Europe for the second consecutive year.

To cap off this success, we have once again been recognised as the Best Airline - Europe, demonstrating how popular we are with customers.

Read the full story here: https://tinyurl.com/y5zz5dxl

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays have been recognised as the best airline and best tour operator in the UK for how we have been treating customers in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, says a major new investigative survey released today by MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE).

More than 27,000 travel customers responded to MSE's 'coronavirus travel survey', which asked for their rating, feedback and experiences dealing with 81 airlines and travel firms due to problems arising from coronavirus. Companies were then ranked by subtracting the percentage who had a poor experience from those who had a great experience with the company.

The survey shows that Jet2holidays had a positive score of +54, the highest ranked tour operator in the list and the fourth highest company overall. Jet2.com was ranked as the best airline, with a score of +47 which put us fifth overall. The full table is below.

The travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have resulted in our fleet of aircraft having to be grounded. In response, we have continued to operate a fully staffed call centre, and even though our teams are subject to the same difficulties and restrictions as everyone else, we have been working tirelessly to proactively contact customers in departure date order to discuss their options.

This has already resulted in positive feedback from customers and from influential industry commentators, and today's survey further demonstrates the success of our customer-first approach.

Read more here: http://tiny.cc/hvkdpz

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: "As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) is advising against all non-essential worldwide travel for a period of 30 days. We have therefore suspended our award-winning flights and holidays departing from the UK until the end of April, and we plan to recommence from May 1st 2020, a decision we will keep under constant review.

Whilst the health and safety of our customers is of course our number one priority, we are also acutely aware of our responsibility as an award-winning airline and tour operator to look after our customers.

With that responsibility in mind, we know that flying customers back to the UK is the right thing to do. As such, we are continuing to operate our scheduled programme, with aircraft flying empty from the UK so that we can fill them and bring customers home.In addition to that programme of scheduled flights, we are putting on extra aircraft to bring customers home, some of who may not have been offered flights home by their airline.

This is an enormously fast-moving and complex situation, however customers and independent travel agents can rest assured that our teams are doing the right thing for them. We are contacting our customers who are currently in destination, and who are due to travel, to advise them of their options. We urge customers not to call us please, as we are experiencing high call volumes. We will be in touch with our customers based on their planned departure date.

We recognise that this is an extremely challenging time, and we would like thank all of our customers and independent travel agency partners for their understanding and patience.

Until then, we look forward to taking you on our award-winning flights and holidays again.

A major study by YouGov has shown that when it comes to saying, 'We Recommend You!' customers put Jet2.com and Jet2holidays way ahead of the competition.

YouGov BrandIndex researched over 1,500 brands to discover if customers recommend them or not. To do this they asked customers to answer the following question: "Would you recommend the brand to a friend or colleague?"

YouGov then used this data to discover the proportion of each brand's customers who are willing to recommend it to others.

When it comes to brands in the 'travel companies' category, Jet2holidays was the second highest-ranked, scoring an impressive 82.9%. No competitors made the top ten. Once again, this shows that our ATOL protected 'package holidays you can trust' are a huge hit with customers, putting us in an industry-leading position.

In the airline category, Jet2.com was the best-ranked short haul airline, scoring 70.2%.

This recognition follows a plethora of other awards and accolades from trusted brands and organisations such as Which?, Feefo, and TripAdvisor.

We know our customers work hard and save hard for their holiday, so we work just as hard to make their holidays memorable. Whether it's our low £60 per person deposit, our VIP customer service, or having more customer helpers in resort and in airports than our competitors, we work tirelessly to make sure customers have a lovely holiday and the success of that approach is seen in results such as this.

We would like to thank all of our customers for this fantastic feedback, and you can find the results of the study here: www.brandindex.com/ranking/uk/recommend/category/travel-companies

Customers and independent travel agents can book flights and holidays from East Midlands Airport for Summer 21 earlier than ever thanks to an early launch!

The huge summer programme on sale represents over one million seats and 32 destinations in total and offers customers fantastic choice and flexibility when it comes to reaching their favourite summer hotspots.

With multiple weekly and even daily flights to many of these destinations, holidaymakers can enjoy complete flexibility over how long they choose to holiday for - a move which Jet2holidays pioneered ten years ago so that customers can choose holidays of any duration to suit their budgets and needs.

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays is offering customers more flights and holidays than ever from Leeds Bradford Airport for Summer 21, thanks to the launch of its biggest ever summer programme which includes three brand new and exclusive destinations - Santorini, Skiathos and Lisbon.

The leading leisure airline and package holiday specialist has put its award-winning flights and holidays on sale for Summer 21 from Leeds Bradford Airport today, meaning customers and independent travel agents can book earlier than ever. The huge summer programme means over two million seats have gone on sale, representing 80,000 extra seats - a capacity increase of 4%.

The expanded programme means that Yorkshire's leading airline and holiday provider is offering customers more choice and flexibility than ever before when it comes to reaching their favourite summer hotspots such as the Canaries, Balearics, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.

With multiple weekly, daily, and even multiple daily flights to many of these destinations, holidaymakers can enjoy complete flexibility over how long they holiday for - a move which Jet2holidays pioneered ten years ago so that customers can choose holidays of any duration to suit their budgets and needs.

The introduction of flights and holidays to Santorini, Skiathos and Lisbon for the first time gives Yorkshire holidaymakers even more variety when it comes to getting away in Summer 21. No other company operates to any of these destinations from Leeds Bradford, making these routes exclusive to Jet2.com and Jet2holidays.

With more Customer Helpers in-resort and in airports than any other holiday company, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays is repeatedly recognised by customers and independent organisations for delivering a VIP customer service. This has resulted in a catalogue of awards such as Which? Recommended Provider, Best Airline - Europe & Top 10 Airlines of the World by TripAdvisor, and the Best Tour Operator for Customer Service by The Institute of Customer Service.

This continued popularity, alongside customer friendly touches such as 1000's of Free Child places, an industry leading 22kg baggage allowance, and a choice of ways to book including Call Centre, Online and Independent Travel Agents, all for a low £60 per person deposit, has enabled the company to grow to become the UK's second largest tour operator today.

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: "We are putting our Summer programme on sale earlier than ever from Leeds Bradford Airport, giving customers and independent travel agents the chance to book early. There continues to be strong demand for our award-winning flights and holidays, which is why we are putting on such an exciting programme for Summer 21, including three exciting new destinations in Santorini, Skiathos and Lisbon. Our continued focus on giving customers an award-winning experience, alongside more choice and flexibility, means we are looking forward to a very exciting Summer 21 from Leeds Bradford Airport."

For further information and to book visit www.jet2.com or www.jet2holidays.com

Our Early Careers team and some of our pilots have been busy visiting schools from across the country, creating memories and giving pupils a taste of life working for Jet2.com.

First Officer Theo Harding, from our Leeds Bradford Airport team, paid a visit to Cottingley Primary School to meet with budding pilot Thomas and his class, while First Officer Phillip Wild headed to Burton Road Primary School in Barnsley.

Both Theo and Phillip told pupils more about who we are, what it is like working for us, what their job involves and the many career opportunities available with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays. They were also on hand to answer lots of questions and give out our pilot and cabin crew stickers for the children to wear.

Our Early Careers team also dropped in to see children at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School in Cheshire. Students in Reception have been busy role playing the jobs of captains and cabin crew, and the children have even created their own versions of a cockpit and aircraft in the classroom.

These visits form part of our Schools Project, which we launched in March last year. The aim of the project is to attract and develop young talent, while raising awareness of the huge array of career opportunities available at Jet2.com and Jet2holidays. To date, we have visited 450 schools and engaged with over 25,000 students in secondary schools and colleges, while supporting colleagues visiting their local primary school.

Jet2.com has celebrated the opening of a new Jet2Suite at Leeds Beckett University.

Over 40 delegates gathered at Leeds Beckett University's School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management as the two new teaching classrooms were unveiled for the first time. During the grand opening, attendees witnessed a ribbon cutting, before receiving a tour of the Jet2Suite,a brand-new facility designed to give students the skills needed to succeed in the industry. They also heard from guest speakers including Professor Rhodri Thomas, Dean of the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management and Richard Chambers, HR Director at Jet2.com and Jet2holidays.

The launch of the Jet2Suite follows a partnership agreement between us and Leeds Beckett University and will see students who are studying degrees in International Tourism Management and Hospitality Business Management receive interactive training and seminars in the classrooms.

With over 90 of our colleagues having previously studied at Leeds Beckett University - more than any other university in the country - we have partnered with the establishment more closely, to help upskill students and showcase the job opportunities available to potential future employees.

In addition to white boards and TV screens, one of the classrooms also contains a Hall of Fame, showcasing a series of case studies of graduates who have been successful in gaining employment with us after studying at Leeds Beckett University.

Richard Chambers, HR Director of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, said: "We are extremely pleased to have partnered with Leeds Beckett University and to open the first Jet2Suite. With a resounding number of colleagues coming from Leeds Beckett University, it felt like a natural fit.

"We are proud to be working with the School more closely, providing them with a comfortable environment to learn in and develop their skills, whilst showcasing the wide range of career opportunities available at Jet2.com and Jet2holidays after graduation. We look forward to seeing the classrooms in action and welcoming many more Leeds Beckett University students in the future!"

Professor Rhodri Thomas, Dean of the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management, said: "Our School is committed to providing high quality research-informed vocational education that is relevant to industry. By working with forward-thinking stakeholders like Jet2.com, we want to inspire our students to make a positive difference in the world and to equip them to become the tourism leaders of tomorrow. The creation of the suite is a very conspicuous indicator of how closely we work with industry leaders."

Jet2.com and Jet2holidays has triumphed once again in the Travel Weekly Globe Awards, scooping an unprecedented threeawards.

For the fifth year running,Jet2holidayswas awarded Best Short-Haul Operator at the prestigious awards, held at Grosvenor House in London.

We were also recognised for our partnership approach to working with independent travel agents by voting Jet2holidays as Best Trade-Friendly Brand. This accolade celebrates our 20-strong trade team and our dedicated commitment to investing in our independent travel agency partners to help them drive business growth.

Adding to our vast award collection, Jet2.com beat a number of other well-known airlines to be named the Best Short-Haul Airline by UK travel agents for the eighth time in nine years.

Now in its 43rd year, the Travel Weekly Globe Awards are widely acknowledged in the travel industry and recognise the best companies and individuals in a range of sectors as voted for by travel agents.

Alan Cross, Head of Trade at Jet2holidays, said: "The Travel Weekly Globe Awards are seen as one of the industry's leading award ceremonies, celebrating the very best in travel. To win three awards is resounding recognition from independent travel agents and customers, and we would like to say thank you to everyone who voted for us.

"We are incredibly proud of our achievement, as our team work tremendously hard year-after-year to deliver our award-winning VIP experience to both agents and customers alike. These latest award wins prove yet again that our approach to providing the best product and service is working. After a great start to the year, we're looking forward to a successful 2020, working in partnership with independent travel agents."

The Aviation Minister, Paul Maynard MP, met with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays this week when he visited Leeds Bradford Airport.

Mr Maynard met with Phil Ward, Managing Director of Jet2.com, and Ian Day, Group Legal Director, and praised the customer experience he had after travelling with us recently. As the Minister responsible for overseeing government matters on aviation, he also commended Jet2.com for our work in tackling disruptive passenger behaviour, an issue we lead the industry on thanks to our Onboard Together campaign.

Phil and Ian spent time providing Mr Maynard with an overview of our business, and we hope to welcome the Minister back for a longer visit in the near future.

Jet2.com has been recognised as a Which? Recommended Provider once again, marking the fourth consecutive year that the UK's largest consumer organisation has awarded us with this prestigious accolade.

The recognition comes on the back of the annual Which? Travel Annual Airline Survey, which once again puts us way ahead of other airlines including easyJet, TUI, British Airways and Ryanair.

The survey, completed by more than 6,500 Which? members, asked holidaymakers to rate their airline experiences after travelling. An overall customer score was then compiled based on a range of factors including punctuality, boarding, cabin environment, seat comfort, customer service, food and drink, and value for money.

Enjoying our highest-ever overall customer score (79%, up from 75% last year), Jet2.com scored consistently well on all factors, with our customer service, cabin environment, value for money and punctuality singled out for praise in particular.

This is the latest in a long line of accolades that we have received for consistently delivering first-class customer service and quality.

Just last month, we won Short-Haul Airline of the Year at the Telegraph Travel Awards and we also scooped five awards at the 2019 TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards earlier this year (Best Airline - UK, Best Airline - Europe, Best Low Cost Airline - Europe, Best Economy Class - Europe and Top 10 Airlines of the World). In July, Jet2.com was also recognised as the top airline and top transport company in the UK Customer Satisfaction Index, which is produced by the Institute of Customer Service.

These successes come on the back of another year of investing in our operation, as well as on customer service and delivering our family friendly formula.

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: "We are very proud to be recognised as a Which? Recommended Provider for the fourth year running, and we are delighted to have increased our already impressive customer score. This accolade is based on the views of thousands of paying customers, and what they have said - very clearly - is that Jet2.com is their favourite holiday airline. We are very grateful to customers for this feedback, and we will continue working as hard as ever to treat every single customer like a VIP, so that they book with us time and time again, and so that we remain well ahead of the competition."

We're ending the year on a high with another award win at this year's GRAFTAS. Jet2holidays has been named Best Tour Operator for the fourth year in a row at the prestigious industry award, which celebrate the best in travel and tourism across the North East.

The awards are based on the votes of those working in the travel industry and this latest accolade yet again demonstrates our successful partnership approach to working with independent travel agents in the North East, as well as highlighting our VIP customer experience.

Over 200 delegates from the travel industry gathered for the annual ceremony, recognising Jet2holidays'commitment to investing in its independent travel agency partners in the region to help them attract customers and sell package holidays to drive business growth.

We have enjoyed years of growth at Newcastle Airport, and this is set to continue for Summer 2020, with over ONE MILLION seats on sale to 33 great destinations across Europe, the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands including exciting new destination - Kosin Greece.

If you are an independent travel agent and are interested in learning more about how you could benefit from working in partnership with Jet2holidays, please visit the company's dedicated trade site: trade.jet2holidays.com