Jet2’s chief executive has pledged to be “a bigger and better partner” to the trade when it moves to the main market stock exchange.
In August, the UK’s biggest package holiday provider and third-largest airline revealed plans to step up from AIM to the main market of the London Stock Exchange to reflect the scale and evolution of its business.
Speaking to delegates at the Jet2 Non-Retail Summit in a pre-recorded video message, Steve Heapy thanked agents for “another successful year” and reassured them that the move would “have zero effect on our relationships [with partners]”.
Heapy said: “We have had a successful year for trading, profit and cash in the bank, and we also recently announced that we will be moving to main market stock exchange, which will be just outside the FTSE 100, at about 120 or 125, something like that.
“This will have zero effect for our relationships, it will make us a bigger, a stronger company with more investments, so we’ll be able to invest more in the company going forward and hopefully be a bigger and better partner for you guys.”
Heapy added he was currently in New York meeting Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta to see how the technological landscape is changing with the rise of AI.
“We will disseminate any useful information we can to you guys to let you know what’s changing,” he said.
“We’re going through the third industrial revolution during the dawn of AI, and it’s very important that we keep on top of how this is affecting our businesses.”
He said this year had been “operationally challenging” for a number of reasons, so it was important to collaborate and engage with partners.
Heapy said: “We need to acknowledge, share and continue to build our relationships across the industry as there is a number of challenges that remain with us in these uncertain times and the more we talk, engage and discuss these issues, the better we will be in overcoming the challenges.”
One example was the impact of the war in Iran which had “far-reaching consequences” to other destinations, and resulted in “a general downturn in people’s propensity to book a holiday”.
He said people had been booking holidays later and there had been periods where cancellation rates were very high.
Heapy added the UK economy had the potential for more tax rises and “more red tape for businesses”, in addition to cost increases across the supply chain and disruption related to air traffic control issues, wildfires, thunderstorms and Mount Etna eruptions.
He urged agents to remember that Jet2 still had the lowest cancellation rate in the industry of 0.07%.