Jet2 opens gateway to N. East England

THE latest British low cost airline to operate between the UK and Palma, Jet2, will today celebrate the launch of its new service in Majorca.
Jet2 will be exclusively operating flights to Palma from Leeds Bradford airport and Philip Meeson, the Chief Executive of Dart Group PLC, owners of Jet2, said yesterday that the low cost airline industry still offers massive potential and that, thanks to the launch of Jet2, some nine million people now have direct amd easy access to Majorca. Dart Group PLC is an international transport company which operates 20 commercial aircraft carrying both cargo and passengers as well as operating a fleet of over 500 trucks in the UK. Meeson said that the low cost market has “a tremendous future and potential growth, in time, only low cost airlines will survive in Europe.” “Leeds Bradford is the gateway to North East England, 40 minutes from Sheffield and Manchester and 90 minutes from Newcastle, for example,” he said.
Meeson also stressed that the area is very affluent and one of the fastest growing in the UK, “it's the number two location for financial services, building societies etc, and Leeds has a huge IT uniiversity, 60% of all IT communications (e-mail) go through Leeds,” he added. But Jet2 is not only looking at flying people out to Palma and its other European destinations, but expects 30 per cent of its load factor to be passengers visiting Yorkshire. “For the short to mid term we want to get well established, consolidate and increase services on existing routes, in the long term, obviously we'll be looking for new destinations and to help expand Leeds Bradford airport,” Meeson said yesterday. From April 8, Jet2 will be flying on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. From May 1 to September 1, flights will be daily.