London-Luton Airport (LTN) has been selected as the next base for UK inclusive-tour charter airline Jet2, with operations from the facility due to commence in the northern summer of 2025. The leisure airline will initially base two of its new Airbus A321neo aircraft at the airport creating hundreds of new jobs at the North London airport, including positions for pilots, cabin crew, engineers, and ground operations staff.
In its first summer of operations from London-Luton, Jet2, the UK’s largest tour operator and the country’s third-largest airline overall, will fly to 17 destinations across Europe, the Canary Islands, and the Mediterranean. This move is in response to “enormous demand from customers and independent travel agents across the region,” said the airline in a statement.
Jet2 (and its sister company Jet2holidays) will operate up to 36 weekly flights from the airport, which will include multiple weekly flights to popular destinations across the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Mainland Spain, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, Portugal, and Madeira. While many of these routes will compete head-to-head with other carriers at the airport including easyJet, Wizz Air, and Ryanair, three further destinations (Girona, Madeira, and Verona) will be exclusive to Jet2. The first Jet2-operated flight is planned to depart from the airport on April 1, 2025.
“We are very excited to announce London Luton Airport as our 13th UK base airport today, further expanding our footprint and bringing our award-winning holidays and flights to even more customers,” announced Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2 and Jet2holidays. “Customers and independent travel agents have been asking us to open at London Luton Airport for many years now, so we know how enormously popular this announcement will be. We have seen time and time again how popular our product is when we bring it to new customers, and we look forward to bringing our VIP customer service to holidaymakers from London Luton Airport.”
“This latest expansion reflects our strategy to be the UK’s leading and best leisure travel business and it underlines the confidence we have. As well as signaling great news for holidaymakers, today is also a major boost for the local economy as our significant investment includes the creation of over 125 jobs initially. We are looking forward to our first day of flying when we can start delighting customers from London Luton Airport with our flights and holidays, just like we do with millions of other customers across the UK every single year,” Heapy added.
“Jet2.com and Jet2holidays’ arrival at London-Luton Airport represents a significant investment for the region too,” said Alberto Martin, Chief Executive at London-Luton Airport. “We are delighted to welcome Jet2 to London Luton Airport. This is fantastic news for the millions of passengers who choose to fly from the airport each year and marks a major expansion of Jet2’s operations in the south of England.”
“It will create exciting new jobs for local people and new opportunities for our local supply chain that we already work so closely with. [2025] is already shaping up to be another bumper year for London-Luton Airport and the addition of 17 exciting new routes on our departure boards, including three destinations that are exclusive to the airport, underlines our commitment to providing even greater choice as part of our simple and friendly passenger experience.”
The opening of a new base at London-Luton further expands Jet2’s footprint in the south of England after it started operating from Bristol Airport (BRS) in the summer of 2021, with Bournemouth Airport (BOH) also becoming a base in February 2024. Further north, a base at Liverpool Airport (LPL) opened in March 2024.
About Jet2 and London-Luton
According to ch-aviation, Jet2 currently operates a fleet of 123 aircraft which includes seven Boeing 737-300s, five 757-200s, 95 Boeing 737-800s, and 14 A321s, plus some wet-leased Airbus A330-200s. The carrier’s last remaining 757s are being retired during the winter of 2024 as new A321neos are being delivered to the airline, of which it has 136 on order.
London-Luton Airport is the UK’s fifth busiest airport, handling over 16.4 million passengers in 2023. The airport is operated by a consortium, of which the majority shareholder is AENA, the world’s largest airport operator, along with InfraBridge, a leading infrastructure investment manager.