Jet2.com has announced a series of major investments in the North East.
The move demonstrates the company’s commitment to Newcastle Airport and surrounding areas and position Jet2 as one of the region’s most high profile airlines.
The expansion programme includes the launch of four new routes to Bodrum, Rome, Reus and Venice. Flights to these destinations will commence from May 31 with prices starting from £34.99 one way including taxes.
And over one hundred new jobs will be recruited over the coming months to service the expansion plans and extra capacity. Job seekers can apply for ground staff, cabin crew, flight crew and engineering roles at www.jet2.com/careers
An additional Jet2 aircraft will be based at the airport for summer 2012, taking the total to six increasing potential passenger capacity by 80,000.
There will also be additonal flights on favourite destinations such as Faro, Menorca, Malaga, Cork, Prague and Krakow.
Jet2.com, which last month added the Croatian hotspot of Dubrovnik to its list of destinations, will service 27 destinations from Newcastle Airport for 2012.
Ian Doubtfire, managing director of Jet2.com, said: “We have been closely monitoring the success of this airport over the past year and we believe there’s real potential for this region. The people of the North East have genuinely embraced Jet2.com and we see exciting horizons for our organisation right here.
“In these tough economic times we are delighted to be creating more job opportunities for local people. Our partnership with Newcastle College to deliver first-class training to our growing team of cabin crew across all our bases, further demonstrates our commitment to the local economy.
“This year has been a fantastic year for us at Newcastle. We’ve seen flights taking off to five exciting new destinations and the return of our popular New York Christmas shopping breaks. In addition we have increased capacity on some of our most popular routes, added a new 737 to the fleet earlier this year plus recruited 47 new staff to take our airport passenger handling entirely in-house. This, combined with our ambitious growth plans for 2012 will firmly establish us as the North East’s biggest leisure carrier,” he said.
Dave Laws, chief executive at Newcastle International, said: “We are delighted that Jet2.com has invested further in Newcastle Airport, and in turn, the region. We work closely with our local authority shareholders to improve prospects for the North East in these difficult economic times. These five new routes will not only offer our customers the opportunity for leisure breaks, but also increase the scope for inbound tourism and business to business connections.”
High flyers: Celebrating the Jet2 announcement above are (l tor) Kirsha Gurr, David Laws, Ian Doubtfire and Kate Lancaster.
