LONDON – Following a report from the UK CAA about Jet2 being the largest holiday company in the UK, TUI will want to apply pressure on its competitor in the Summer 2023 season.
Such reporting is based on the Top ATOL holders report, which includes the passengers that companies are licensed to handle.
| Rank | Licence holder | ATOL no | Passengers licensed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jet2holidays Ltd | 9618 | 5,859,600 |
| 2 | TUI UK Ltd | 2524 | 5,336,410 |
| 3 | On the Beach Travel Limited | 11549 | 1,863,023 |
| 4 | We Love Holidays Ltd | 10989 | 1,854,038 |
| 5 | Booking.com B.V. | 11967 | 1,737,680 |
| 6 | easyJet Holidays Ltd | 11694 | 1,294,465 |
| 7 | British Airways Holidays Ltd | 5985 | 848,380 |
| 8 | Expedia Group, Inc | 5788 | 636,171 |
| 9 | BravoNext SA | 11082 | 607,726 |
| 10 | Travel Republic Ltd | 10581 | 368,780 |
TUI UK vs. Jet2 in Summer 2022…
As well as the CAA report establishing how close the competition is between the airline and Jet2, let’s use historical data from RadarBox.com to establish this, more notably in the Summer 2022 season.
This will look at the official dates of Summer in the UK as June 21, 2022-September 23, 2022:
| Date | TUI UK Weekly Movements | Jet2 Weekly Movements | Who Performed More Flights? |
| June 18-25, 2022 | 389 movements | 396 movements | Jet2 |
| June 25-July 2 | 382 movements | 395 movements | Jet2 |
| July 2-9 | 400 movements | 399 movements | TUI UK |
| July 9-16 | 403 movements | 394 movements | TUI UK |
| July 16-23 | 408 movements | 399 movements | TUI UK |
| July 23-30 | 415 movements | 398 movements | TUI UK |
| July 30-August 6 | 422 movements | 396 movements | TUI UK |
| August 6-13 | 418 movements | 395 movements | TUI UK |
| August 13-20 | 420 movements | 402 movements | TUI UK |
| August 20-27 | 419 movements | 400 movements | TUI UK |
| August 27-September 3 | 417 movements | 400 movements | TUI UK |
| September 3-10 | 404 movements | 394 movements | TUI UK |
| September 10-17 | 415 movements | 394 movements | TUI UK |
| September 17-24 | 429 movements | 385 movements | TUI UK |
This table highlights the fact that despite the blue-liveried airline operating more flights on average than Jet2 week-by-week over the Summer 2022 season, Jet2 had a higher load factor to achieve a higher number of passengers.
It ultimately means that as well as needing to operate the same number of flights per week or more over the Summer 2023 season, the airline needs more passengers in their aircraft.
The data, of course, highlights the network spread that the carrier has, as well as its frequencies being slightly higher than Jet2’s, but the important figure here is about passenger numbers. And that is what matters ultimately, to get that #1 spot again.
Overall: Summer 2023 Has To Perform Better…
It remains clear that the airline has the operational infrastructure to take on rival Jet2 and even exceed movement numbers in that respect.
That being said, however, the carrier needs to increase its load factors, which can be seen through the number of deals the holiday provider is offering at this point.
With the chaos that ensued over the Summer 2022 season, the provider has to ensure that they get things right this time in order to maximize passenger numbers moving forward.
Otherwise, Jet2 will continue to hold that #1 spot in the UK CAA rankings.
It’s going to be an exciting season this year, with demand expected to be higher than in Summer 2022, which definitely says a lot about where post-COVID travel is going.
