Airline and package holiday company Jet2 says annual profits are expected to jump by around a third as it points to a strong summer season ahead.

The Leeds Bradford Airport-based firm said group profit before foreign exchange for the year to the end of March is likely to be between £515m and £520m, an increase of 33% on last year. It comes as the travel operator pointed to a robust summer season ahead with average load factors – a measure of the seats sold on planes – one percentage point ahead of last year, and 55% sold.

It said forward bookings for package holidays are up by 13% and flight-only bookings up by more than 18%. That means package holidays accounted for 745 of the total departing passengers – one percentage point below last year.

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Meanwhile prices were said to have modestly increased, offsetting higher costs for the operator, but with more competition across April and May. Demand from the carrier’s Liverpool base, launched last year, was reported to be good as expansion is also happening at Bournemouth Airport where flights will start next April. Bosses also pointed to the firm being 90% hedged for fuel for the summer season and 80% for the full financial year, in the face of uncertainty created by conflict in the Middle East.

Since its last update in February Jet2 has taken delivery of two A321neo aircraft from Airbus, paid for out of cash reserves, and making seven within its fleet ready for the summer. Another four aircraft are due to be delivered before the end of Jet2’s 2025 financial year.

Steve Heapy, chief executive officer, said: “We are pleased with the strong financial results for FY24 which underlines the resilience, flexibility and popularity of our product offering, plus the outstanding customer service provided by our colleagues. Although still very early in FY25, we remain confident that as a much trusted holiday provider with an end-to-end customer care approach underpinned by our principles of ‘People, Service, Profits’, our customers will continue to travel with us from our rainy island to the sun spots of the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and to European leisure cities.”