Jet2 to Tour Operators: “We’d Rather Try Something and Fail Than Not Try at All”

Castle Donington, UK - June 3, 2016: a Boeing 737-330QC (G-CELR) commercial passenger aircraft operated by Jet2 about to land at East Midlands Airport near Nottingham, England.

Speaking at a tour operators event this week, JET2holidays executive Alan Cross outlined the company’s bold and oftentimes risky philosophy for maintaining an edge on the competition.

The European holiday travel sector can be a cutthroat business at times. Airlines such as Ryanair have even toyed with the idea of making air travel free to passengers and reclaiming the lost revenue by relying on ancillary fees and reimbursements from airports in a bid to gain an advantage over other low-cost rivals. Jet2 officials, however, are pulling out all the stops to let its affiliated tour operators know that the airline plans to lead rather than follow the competition – even if that means falling flat from time to time.

“It lets you be innovative and go with ideas,” Jet2 spokesperson Alan Cross told travel industry trade magazine TTG this week. “We talk about things for six minutes, not six months. We’d rather try something and fail than not try at all. Nobody said business can’t be fun. But we’re very focused on what we’re doing. We set out to build a conventional, good value, good service tour operator. And if people see that as taking over the world, perhaps that’s because others keep retracting, pulling back and not taking gambles.”

Alan’s comments came at a gala event announcing an invitation-only retreat for nearly all of the airline’s top 300 performing tour agents. This year’s four-day VIP conference will take place at the Gloria Golf Resort in Belek on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Alan points out that this year’s conference locale is extraordinarily fitting, considering the benefits Jet2 reaped from betting early and big on resort destinations in Turkey.

“Antalya is really up there now,” he told TTG. “Our top three is typically Benidorm, Majorca and the Canaries, but over the past four to six weeks, we’ve repeatedly seen Antalya up there too. It’s a key destination we’re developing for 2019. I must admit, until I went out there, I didn’t really know it that well. It’s a fantastic quality destination offering excellent value. It’s great for us summer and winter. Demand is going up all the time for Antalya.”

The aggressive business strategy and rapid expansion employed by Jet2 appears to be returning big dividends for the leisure travel-focused carrier. In April, Trip Advisor readers named Jet2 “The Best Airline in the U.K.” The airline was the only U.K-based airline named among Trip Advisor’s “10 Best Airlines.” Trip Advisor also named the carrier “Best Low-Cost Airline in Europe” and “Best Economy Class in Europe.” Jet2 is currently the only U.K. airline to earn a coveted Which? Magazine “Recommended Provider” endorsement.

“We have been beating the competition to win prestigious awards in the UK for some time, and now we are taking that success onto a global stage,” Jet2 CEO Steve Heapy said of the recent accolades. “The TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice awards for airlines are based on the experiences of paying customers, which makes them truly representative and all the more rewarding to receive as a result.”

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