Low cost airline Jet2 says it is prepared for losses to widen up to £383m after hopes of the travel industry's recovery were set back by the arrival of Omicron.
The Leeds based carrier - which also offers package holidays - said passenger numbers had picked up in October and November last year before Omicron dealt a further blow to the industry in December and January.
But in an update to investors ahead of its full year results to the end of March 2022, Jet2 said that, despite the challenges, it was more confident of the summer season this year.
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The UK's third largest airline said gradual relaxation of UK travel restrictions earlier this year - including the scrapping of pre-departure tests for vaccinated people and post-arrival lateral flow tests - had resulted in increased bookings that were "approaching seasonal norms".
Jet2's board now expects group losses before foreign exchange revaluation and tax to widen to between £378m and £383m, for the year to the end of March 2022. The Group's cash position was £2.23bn with an 'own cash' balance - excluding customer deposits - of £1.08bn.
Bookings were described as "encouraging" as the airline said customers were beginning to treat themselves to long-awaited holidays, with on sale seat capacity for the summer 14% higher than 2019.
An update to the London Stock Exchange said: " We have worked hard to plan recovery for summer 2022, investing well ahead of the season to ensure we have adequate resources to operate with our normal levels of customer care. We also self-handle at many of our key bases and are therefore not reliant on third parties for these aspects of our operations. Additionally, we are currently 95% hedged for jet fuel for summer 2022 and approximately 65% hedged for Winter 22/23 in line with our normal policy.
"Separately, we recently exercised 6 of our purchase rights from our recently announced new Airbus A321 neo aircraft order, meaning we now have 57 firm orders with the flexibility to extend up to a total of 75 aircraft.
" Jet2.com and Jet2holidays are well-recognised national brands with a loyal leisure travel customer following and we confidently believe that opportunities for financially strong, resilient and trusted operators will only increase.
"With our strong 'own cash' balance as at March 31, 2022 of £1.08bn, we are well placed to respond now that the leisure travel market has fully re-opened."
