UK leisure airlines: Jet2.com boosted by Thomas Cook exit

On 11-Oct-2019 Dart Group highlighted positive trends in later season bookings for its leisure travel business, with demand strengthening for both Jet2.com, its low cost airline, and its package holiday company Jet2holidays.

Dart Group also highlighted increased demand since Thomas Cook Group's collapse in late Sep-2019. According to CAPA analysis of OAG data on flights scheduled for the week of 23-Sep-2019 (the date of Thomas Cook's liquidation), the overlap between Jet2.com and Thomas Cook Airlines was significant. One third of Jet2.com's routes and 42% of its seats were on overlapping routes.

For Thomas Cook, 47% of its routes and 49% of its seats competed with Jet2.com. Even without evaluating Thomas Cook's overlap with other leading UK operators such as easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways, this illustrates the highly competitive nature of its business in the UK. It also competed with Jet2.com's package holidays business.

Dart Group now expects its profit in the year to Mar-2020 to be higher than previous market expectations. Nevertheless, it is maintaining a more cautious longer term outlook, due to travel industry cost pressures, GBP weakness and Brexit uncertainty.

This report analyses the network overlap that existed between Jet2.com and Thomas Cook Airlines.