UK holiday airline Jet2 will fly from Luton airport from summer 2025 to compete head-to-head with easyJet, TUI, Wizz Air and Ryanair.
The low-cost carrier will serve 17 destinations across Europe, the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean in response to growing demand from customers and travel agents across the region.
Jet2 and its sister company Jet2holidays will operate up to 36 weekly flights on two brand-new Airbus A321neo aircraft from Luton, with its first service set to depart for Majorca on 1 April 2025.
Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2 and Jet2holidays, said: “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.
“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.”
He added: “This latest expansion reflects our strategy to be the UK’s leading and best leisure travel business and it underlines the confidence we have.”
The airline’s expansion to Luton is expected to create more than 125 jobs, Heapy said, including flight deck, cabin crew, engineering and ground operations positions.
As part of its summer 2025 service from Luton, Jet2 will fly to the Spanish destinations of Alicante, Girona and Reus, as well as the Balearic Islands of Ibiza and Majorca.
It will offer service to Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Jet2 will also fly to Faro and Madeira in Portugal, Crete, Rhodes and Zante in Greece, Antalya and Dalaman in Turkey and Verona in Italy.
Luton airport CEO Alberto Martin said: “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.
“Next year 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.”
