Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Interim Results Presentation for the period ending 30th of September 2025. The format this morning will be: I'll go through the first half highlights. I will then pass over to Gary Brown, our Chief Financial Officer, who will give a financial update, and then Gary will return the microphone to me, and I'll go through a strategy update. There'll then be a period after that for any questions, which we'd be pleased to answer. First of all, record passenger numbers, revenue, and profitability. Further growth in the first half across all our key metrics, we delivered record numbers. Passenger numbers were 6% higher, including the encouraging first summer performance at our Bournemouth and Luton bases. Strong financial performance with group profit before FX revaluations at 1%, and earnings per share 8% higher following our GBP 250 million share buyback program.
We are also pleased today to announce a further share buyback program of GBP 100 million. We have a strong balance sheet and access to ample liquidity, which are vital in this fast-paced capital investment intensive industry. GBP 3.4 billion of cash gives us financial resilience and supports investment in our growing fleet. We operated 23 Airbus A320 or NEO aircraft in summer 2025, and that represented 17% of our total fleet. We are also delighted to announce the launch of operations at Gatwick Airport, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate our growth. Next slide. Our growth strategy is to be the U.K.'s leading and best leisure travel business. We have made strong progress against all of our strategic pillars, supported by our fantastic colleagues who are dedicated to delivering exceptional customer service.
Our brands continue to be recognized by leading independent customer-focused organizations, including TripAdvisor, Trustpilot, FIFO, and of course, the U.K. Institute for Customer Service. Our customers love us, and they come back time after time. Through initiatives like myJet2, we now know them better than ever, and our key metrics in this area show exactly this. We continue to invest in our digital and operational infrastructure, the retail operations center, our revenue management system, and of course, our second maintenance hangar at Manchester Airport. Our fleet renewal program is delivering against our sustainability targets, and we expect to operate 31 Airbus A321neo aircraft in summer 2026, and that represents 22% of the total fleet, which is five percentage points higher than summer 2025. Next slide. Gatwick truly is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate our growth.
Gatwick is the busiest single runway airport in the world, and a once-in-a-generation opportunity came our way through the release of additional slots at Gatwick Airport. We will have access to 15 million people within a 60-minute journey by road or rail of Gatwick Airport. We have flights and holidays on sale from March 2026 to 29 destinations across the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, and European leisure cities. The program will consist of six aircraft, and we hope to be able to grow that organically as we become established. We expect the new base to be profitable in financial year 2029, and it should deliver meaningful profit growth thereafter. In September 2025, the DFT approved the Gatwick expansion program to operate a dual runway subject to a six-week appeal process.
The new northern runway is anticipated to be operational by the early 2030s, enabling the capacity of the airport to rise from 45 million to 60 million passengers per annum. That will present us with a fantastic opportunity to grow significantly. The next part of the presentation, I will pass you over to our Chief Financial Officer, Gary Brown, who will give you our financial review.
Thanks, Steve. Good morning, everyone. I'm Gary Brown. I'm Group CFO here at Jet2, and I'm pleased to present our financial results for the six months ending 30th of September 2025, together with some thoughts on how we think about capital allocation here. Moving to slide seven, we've included this slide as it's often easy to lose sight of where the business was relatively recently and where we are now. We flew 19.8 million passengers in the financial year ended 31st of March 2025, which means we've been growing at just under 8% a year since 2019. Our revenue has gone up even faster, averaging about 16% since 2019, mainly because more of our customers have been choosing package holidays.
In fact, in 2025, these made up 66.5% of our total passengers, up 17 percentage points as compared to 2019, with package holiday revenue making up over 80% of our total revenue. Back then, we had nine U.K. bases and an aircraft fleet of 90 primarily mid-life Boeing aircraft, a composition that is rapidly changing, as you heard from Steve, underpinned by our firm Airbus delivery schedule. The A321neo is making up 17% of our fleet in summer 2025. Operating profit has more than doubled, up 118% to GBP 447 million in 2025 from GBP 204 million in 2019. We are also making more operating profit per sector seat, which has risen from around GBP 15 to GBP 20, a 35% increase.
Our basic earnings per share are up 132% compared to 2019, and our average return on capital employed over the three years since the pandemic is 17% and one of the best in the industry. As you will hear, the strong financial track record and the continuing evolution of our business ongoing confidence in our future growth prospects. Onto slide eight. Our key stats illustrate how our flexible, fully integrated operating model is capable of adapting to changing consumer trends. They also demonstrate our clear focus on optimizing profitability through a combination of volume, pricing, and product mix. First things first, more people are choosing Jet2, an extra 750,000 passengers, or 6% up on last year. This summer, more people chose flight only, which was up by 16%, as customer booking trends continued to be late, and we saw more of those last-minute price-sensitive deals.
We've consistently stressed that both our products are of vital importance, and it's great to see customers recognizing the clear value that our flight-only offering brings. Friendly flight times, an industry leader for not canceling flights, and with the added benefit of our Red Team of customer helpers providing their outstanding customer-first service. Package holidays are still a hit, growing 1% to a record 4.73 million customers, and as you know, they bring in a higher profit per customer. Prices for package holidays held up well, rising 3% as we were able to pass on most of the cost increases from our suppliers. On the flight-only side of the business, the average ticket price dropped 7% to GBP 122 because we ran more promotional offers, which were supported by the targeted reallocation of marketing investment to optimize load factors in a pretty competitive market.
Pleasingly, we also made 4% more per passenger from our non-ticket revenue streams. Having more flight-only passengers meant we earned more hold baggage income, whilst our inflight retail offers saw spend per head grow a further 4% due to consistently strong onboard product availability made possible by our in-house retail operations center, plus the launch of a new onboard product range. Looking now at slide nine, revenue was up by 5%, primarily due to the growth in passenger numbers, but also helped by the increase in the package holidays price. What I would describe as our underlying operating cost base was well controlled and up by 4.8%. Some of the main influences on this growth were in terms of our hotel accommodation costs. They represent about 45% of our full-year cost base.
They were up 7% with inflationary rate increases of 6%, plus an increased proportion of bookings to higher star-rated and all-inclusive hotels, as customers treated themselves being the main drivers. Excluding the impact of SAF premiums due to the SAF mandate increase, our fuel costs, which are just over 10% of our cost base, were down 3% on a like-for-like basis, as a 7% increase in flying activity was offset by a 5% reduction in the blended fuel price, a 3% efficiency improvement from the growing A321neo fleet, plus some FX benefits. Landing, navigation, and third-party handling costs, which are towards 9% of our cost base, rose 10%. The growth of both flying activity linked to average rate increases across U.K. and European airport bases, with notable increases in Euro control charges and third-party handling costs in Turkey.
We also saw efficiencies in marketing spend coming through, as investments we've made in our digital marketing technology infrastructure helped improve underlying cost per acquisition. Beyond our underlying cost base, we incurred over GBP 30 million of additional costs, including the increase in employer NI and national minimum wage imposed by government of about GBP 11 million, an extra GBP 17 million in premiums for sustainable aviation fuel as the SAF mandate jumped to 2%. Finally, we invested to firmly establish ourselves at our two new bases at Bournemouth and Luton in the first summer of operation. In total, these additional costs added a further 0.7% of overall cost growth. That said, our EBIT, or operating profit margins, were still healthy at 13.4%, whilst our basic earnings per share were up by 8%, aided by our GBP 250 million share buyback program.
Return on capital employed sat at 23.5% halfway through the year, though it'll dip a bit by year-end due to second-half losses, which are normal for our business. Turning the page to slide 10, our EBITDA was up by 2% compared to last year, with our net cash generated from operating activity still strong at approximately GBP 700 million, although down on last year due to the later customer booking curve. Our capital expenditure investments included payments for six owned Airbus A321neo aircraft, a spare LEAP- 1A engine to support the growing Airbus fleet, plus normal maintenance on our existing Boeing aircraft. In addition, our second maintenance hangar at Manchester Airport opened in August, which means we can now support six lines of aircraft maintenance across both of our hangars.
First half free cash flow was GBP 370 million, meaning that since the pandemic, we've generated approximately GBP 2.5 billion of free cash, which enables us to confidently support our strategic capital allocation. We also chose to pay off certain aircraft loans for four of our Boeing 737-800NG aircraft, six last year, because they were more expensive than what we can now achieve in the JOLCO market. On top of that, we bought back and canceled GBP 231 million worth of our own shares as part of our GBP 250 million share buyback program, which completed just after the end of the reporting period. Moving to slide 11, first thing to say is that we have one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry, with access, as Steve has said, to ample liquidity, which we think is essential in what is a fast-paced, capital-intensive industry.
We took delivery of nine new A321neo planes, six from our long-term aircraft order, and three we have leased to fill short-term gaps in the delivery profile. We also used the JOLCO market to finance four of the nine new aircraft, raising GBP 191 million. Our total cash was down GBP 242 million compared to last year, mostly due to capital allocation decisions, which included the majority of the GBP 250 million share buyback and the repurchase of the convertible bond in the second half of last financial year. Customer cash was broadly flat YoY due to the late booking curve and higher mix of flight-only bookings.
As you've seen in the past, when we quickly capitalized on the demise of Thomas Cook, and also during COVID when we were able to make the right decisions for our colleagues and customers, this strong financial foundation has, on this occasion, allowed us to confidently pursue our growth ambitions at London Gatwick in the full knowledge that meaningful startup investment will be required to provide a solid operational platform, which over time will enable us to fully capitalize on the scale of that opportunity. Finally, in a further demonstration of the confidence in the group's sustainable cash generative business model and the board's conviction in the prospects for the business, we have today announced an on-market share buyback program of up to GBP 100 million. Shares will be canceled following purchase, providing a further positive enhancement to earnings per share.
Turning to our capital allocation framework on slide 12, let me quickly walk you through how we think about capital allocation. It's really all about making sure we invest in our business to ensure it remains resilient and keeps evolving to the ever-changing consumer landscape. It's about keeping our balance sheet in good shape to service our debt obligations and keep the cost of debt down, and it's to make sure we're well protected if anything unexpected comes along. On the flip side, it also means we've got the flexibility to invest in exciting growth opportunities as and when, whilst providing good returns for our shareholders. As you've seen, we're continuing to deliver solid operating and free cash flow, which means we can invest in the business, recently launching both Bournemouth and London Luton airports.
We've been encouraged by their performances and are looking forward to continuing to grow in these regions by building our brand awareness and understanding and steadily growing a loyal customer base. Looking ahead, we're now gearing up for Gatwick to get underway on March 2026, which is a fantastic opportunity for us to further accelerate our growth, bearing in mind that, as Steve has said, the catchment area is over 15 million people within 60 minutes of it by road or rail. We continue to invest in tech and infrastructure with our AR-led revenue management system pilot underway, our second maintenance hangar at Manchester operational, and our groundbreaking retail operations center now fully automated.
Our total and net cash position remains strong, allowing us to be flexible around our debt obligations to reduce the overall cost of debt, whilst giving the JOLCO market the confidence to continue to do plenty of business with us. In terms of shareholder returns, we've bought back GBP 250 million of shares, or approximately 10% of the current market cap of the company, which helped push our EPS earnings per share up by 8% and by 132% since 2019. We've also increased the interim dividend, whilst announcing another buyback of GBP 100 million today, which will take us cumulatively to over 13% of the current market cap return to shareholders. Finally, on slide 13, how are we thinking about the medium term?
We know there are many companies in this industry who have flown too close to the sun in the way they run their balance sheets and leverage position. From our perspective, we believe remaining at less than two times net debt to EBITDA on an own cash basis brings a pragmatic balance between protecting the business, but also manageable levels of leverage to maximize returns. As of today, we've got plenty of headroom against this target, but as we take more aircraft and finance, this level will drift up. We've said previously that we learned a lot during COVID, where we went into that period with just over $500,000 of our own cash and an undrawn RCF of GBP 100 million.
This allowed us to treat customers with respect in returning their deposits quickly and gave us the breathing space to make the right decisions for our business, and in particular, our colleagues. As you've heard, our business has grown by over 100% since then, and we believe that own cash balance of between GBP 600 million and GBP 700 million at our year-end, which is the low point in the cash cycle, plus an underwritten RCF of GBP 500 million gives us the necessary breathing space should we ever encounter something similar. Just to stress, we don't expect to grow this own cash target as the business continues to get bigger, as we feel this is the right level.
Average capital expenditure from FY 2027 to FY 2030 is in the region of GBP 950 million, given current visibility of our Airbus fleet pipeline, and we believe financing approximately 50% of these aircraft is very much in line with our historical business philosophy of wanting to own a good proportion of these valuable capital assets, which we intend to fly through to end of life. This would mean approximately 65% of our total aircraft fleet would be unencumbered by the end of 2030. Finally, as has been seen recently, subject to maintaining our capital allocation principles and assuming satisfactory financial performance, we would look to return excess capital to our shareholders. I'll now hand back to Steve, who'll talk you through the other slides.
Thank you very much, Gary. I'm sure they'll all agree a very impressive set of results and some very clear messages. Next slide, Jet2's investment case.
Our investment case clearly demonstrates why Jet2 is an attractive prospect for investors, both today and for the future. We have a growing market. Although holidays are classed as a discretionary purchase, many, many people within the U.K. class them as an essential purchase and prioritize that above many other things, including lottery ticket sales, streaming services, nights out, social occasions, etc. Over the last couple of years, we've added more bases: Liverpool, Bournemouth, Luton, and laterally our 14th U.K. base, Gatwick, and this increases the reach from 58 to 61 million people. That covers 90% of the U.K. population. Size and scope of the offer. We're the number one tour operator in the U.K. We've got a great product range. It's over 75 destinations across the Mediterranean, Canary Islands, and European leisure cities. We're adding more and more hotels every year in response to the demands of our customers.
We speak to our customers, we listen to what they say, and we act on what they tell us. We've got a fully integrated operating model. We control our seat supply. We do self-handling at many bases. We have our own training facilities, and of course, we have the retail operations center, which is now fully automated. Our tour operator only uses one airline, jet2.com. Why? Because it's the best airline in the U.K., according to TripAdvisor, the best airline in Europe, according to TripAdvisor, and the fifth best airline in the world, according to TripAdvisor. Why would we trust our customers on any other airline? We have a customer-led offering. Our Net Promoter Score is in the mid-60s. That's on a par with some of the best brands in the world. We have a 62% repeat booker rate for package holidays.
On sustainability, we remain committed to our sustainability targets outlined in our strategy document, and our fleet renewal program is progressing in line with expectations. This will aid a reduction in our carbon intensity ratio. We have a clear path to growth. We've received 23 Airbus A321neo aircraft, the most fuel-efficient and quietest aircraft in its class, and we have, over the next 10 years, another 132 Airbus aircraft that will provide us with the ability to replace retiring aircraft and also provide a guaranteed stream of aircraft to fuel our growth ambitions. You've heard from Gary, consistently strong financial delivery. We have a strong balance sheet with which to underpin our growth at Gatwick and other bases, and this will continue with the prudence that we have shown over the last few years. Our growth agenda. Our growth agenda consists of two pillars.
The first one, defend and strengthen the core. We have a committed firm aircraft order. This will facilitate further growth at our recently opened bases and will position us to capitalize on potential expansion at Gatwick. This order was done during the pandemic period and provides us with a guaranteed delivery stream, and this will help us to provide very accurate plans as to our activity in the future. Our reach. We have an ATOL license for 7 million customers, and this represents a 20% share of ATOL licenses. We over-index in the over-50s and people with a higher disposable income, and this gives us protection in economically challenging times. 33% of our customers were defined as affluent achievers as compared to 22% of the U.K. population. We're leveraging technology. We have the pilot for our revenue management system underway, and this will cover 5% of our flights.
As a reminder, our revenue management system uses artificial intelligence and many external data points in which to price our flights competitively within the market. The early results are encouraging, and assuming continued positive performance, we plan to progressively roll out across the majority of flights in the forthcoming financial year. The next pillar is to extend our reach and diversity. Personalization and customer diversification is key. MyJet2 has helped increase share of bookings through the app to 31%. That's 5% up YoY. MyJet2P erks has recently been refreshed, giving members the chance to access new exclusive discounts as well as giveaways across a range of popular brands and retailers. Tomorrow's reach. Following the Gatwick launch, we will expand our market presence to 61 million people, attracting new customers thanks to improved reach, but we also have strong retention rates underlining our strong customer-first approach. Leveraging technology.
The leading-edge automation equipment installed at the retail operations center. Alongside data intelligence, we'll, in time, support an improved onboard retail experience for all our customers. We will aim to have the right products at the right time, every time, further optimizing our in-flight revenue potential. We've also invested heavily in our marketing technology, and there'll be more details on this in a future slide. Next slide. Fleet. We're committed to growing and replenishing our fleet to support our growth agenda. We will get additional ACMI aircraft for summer 2026 to enable the allocation of six aircraft at Gatwick, but the Airbus delivery program is unchanged and will support any further growth at Gatwick or any other bases. By summer 2032, you can see from the chart, we'll have a total fleet of 161 aircraft, of which 124 will be CFM-powered A321neo aircraft.
In our opinion, this is the best narrow-body aircraft in the world today in terms of fuel efficiency and noise. The average seat gauge will increase from 197 in summer 2025 to 223 in summer 2032, as the proportion of 232 seat NEO aircraft increases. We therefore expect total seat capacity to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 4.4% across the period. Investing in our fleet. Investing in our fleet is key to maintaining our competitive advantage. As we increase the mix of A321neo aircraft in our fleet, it's important to recognize the significant benefit this brings to the group. For example, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft seats 189 passengers; however, the A321neo seats 232 passengers. Quite simply, we'll be able to take more people on holiday with less emissions per passenger. The A321neo is a crucial part of our climate transition plan.
Additionally, the average cost per seat saving of GBP 10 was realized over summer 2025, primarily driven by fuel and carbon savings, and these savings will increase over time with the increase in the numbers of aircraft. To summarize, 23% more seats on a NEO, 20% fuel and carbon usage reduction per seat, 50% less noise than our existing fleet, which makes it a very attractive aircraft for many airports, and a GBP 10 average cost per seat saving. Next slide. Size and scope of offer. We have a diversified flying program at Jet2, and we operate to 25 countries, over 800 resorts from 14 U.K. bases, that's 75 destinations and over 600 routes. We operate to the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, and European leisure cities. We've offered more destinations in summer 2025, Pula in the Istrian Riviera, Agadir, Marrakech, and Jerez in the south of Spain.
For summer 2026, we'll be launching Samos in Greece, La Palma in the Canary Islands, and Palermo in Sicily. This shows that we're continuing to diversify our offer, respond to our customers, and give them the destinations they have asked for. You can expect more destinations to be announced in the coming months. Next slide. Driving loyalty across our customer base. Quite simply, our goal is to guide customers from their first booking to becoming loyal advocates of the brand and move them up the loyalty ladder. First rung on the loyalty ladder, new customers. We welcome new bookers with a seamless experience and personalized follow-up. From the moment they contact us on the website or in the call center, we make our customers feel welcome. Our customer service starts there.
We look after them pre-travel, on holiday, and when they return from holiday through a robust and comprehensive communication program, making our customers feel special before, during, and after travel. The next rung on the ladder is repeat. We nurture customer engagement through tailored messaging, relevant content, and unrivaled product that encourages repeat booking. This, of course, is aided by our significant investment in marketing technology, which we'll talk about in a little while. This is a very important stage in our booking. Some people will try us once, maybe based on price, and we need to make sure that we get the customer, we nurture them, we keep them interested, we send them relevant content, and make sure they don't look somewhere else. The final stage on the ladder is loyal.
As customers move up, we strengthen the emotional connection with them by providing exclusive benefits and recognition, turning them into loyal bookers who choose us first and recommend them to others. The more people experience Jet2 and Jet2holidays, the more loyal they become. By successfully moving our customers from new bookings right through to loyal status, this increases their lifetime value, boosts booking frequency, and reduces acquisition costs. Loyal customers are more likely to engage with a brand when they get tailored offers and share their positive experiences, ultimately amplifying the brand's reputation and reach. Next slide. With new customers. First of all, reaching new audiences. We have shown at our recent base launches at Liverpool, Bournemouth, Luton, and Gatwick that we are very adept in reaching new customer audiences. However, there's an opportunity to do more, to grow our audience by targeting younger demographic customers.
Springboarding off our highly successful nothing beats meme to increase relevance with this demographic, which is key to deepening our engagement through aspirational, social-first content that taps into their interests and passions. Adding Gatwick base allows us to grow our reach to over 90% of the U.K. population, that's 61 million people. The focus of the messaging will be on the breadth of offering, the value that is offered by our products, our credentials, and VIP service to drive engagement. We continually strive to improve the size and scope of our offering. We are the number one tour operator in the U.K. to destinations across the Mediterranean, the Canaries, and European leisure cities. We have an unrivaled product choice, in excess of 5,600 quality properties spanning over 800 fabulous resorts across more than 75 destinations, and this is increasing every month as we add more in-demand product to our portfolio.
We have a variety of brands. Our beach, cities, villas, indulgence escapes, and vibe brands provide relevant experiences for different types of customers. Fantastic range of properties from two-star to five-star, from self-catering to all-inclusive. We provide our customers with the choice they want. We do not try to squeeze our customers into the products we want them to book; we let them choose. We offer fully flexible durations. We allow people the ultimate choice. They can go on the day they want. They can stay for as long as they like. It is up to them. The customer is in charge. Remember, Jet2holidays is the company that pioneered flexible duration holidays. All in all, we have got an award-winning proposition. What we have is very highly rated by our customers. You have seen the awards we win, our TripAdvisor ratings, our awards from the Institute of Customer Service.
This is highly valued by our customers, and we continue to strive to provide them with the best experience possible. A happy customer will tell other customers of the experience they've received with Jet2holidays. Word of mouth has proved to be very important. Building on the nothing beats meme, we had over 80 billion global video views across TikTok. The song was named TikTok's official Sound of the Summer 2025. We saw celebrity activity from Jeff Goldblum, Mariah Carey, and Drake, who visited our hangar with a combined 173 million followers. An estimated GBP 13 million earned media value through the summer and a 12% year-on-year increase in spontaneous brand awareness amongst 18 to 34-year-olds. All in all, we are number one for brand awareness, number one for branding, number one for ad recall, number one for consideration, and the Jet2 brand, Jet2holidays, has an 86% awareness.
We've taken a long-term consistent approach to building brand equity with our strong visual and sonic branding. We're the only U.K. travel brand to use a triple platinum chart-topping single as our instantly recognized sonic identity. With our effective marketing strategies, we ensure we tap into cultural moments that can be top of mind amongst consumers. Next slide. Retain customers through end-to-end service excellence. We, at Jet2 and Jet2holidays, are famed for our customer service. Multi-award-winning throughout the years, we aim to build on that further. We offer four easy ways to book. Our smooth airport experience is famous. Go to one of our airports and be welcomed by our Red Team who are there to help you through the journey. We offer a VIP service to everybody in the sky.
When you get to resort, you meet our Red Team there who will welcome you, put you on your resort transfer, and then look after you in resort. They are there for you 24/7 along with our telephone line. We've spoken to our customers, and 92% of them are satisfied or very satisfied, and the customer service scores have increased. Our Net Promoter Score is 64 for jet2.com, 66 for Jet2holidays. Compare that with some of the best brands in the world. Jet2.com and Jet2holidays are firmly there. Building a loyal customer base. Our total marketable database stands at over 11 million customers. Over half of these customers are considered active and have previously booked or traveled with us in the last 25 months.
Our database has grown at a compound average rate of 13% since financial year 2022, and this enables a more targeted, personalized marketing experience along with the investments we have made. We provide holidays that are relevant to customers' needs, and this helps drive effective and efficient bookings. We have leveraged our extensive database and myJet2 loyalty scheme to deliver data-led marketing to grow bookings from our loyal customer base and new customers. This, with the aid of our technology investments, enables smarter targeting, increased retention, and deeper brand affinity. Our myJet2 membership program now has over 8 million subscribers, with more than 99% of mobile app bookers being members. The program complements our customer retention strategy and is designed to encourage more users to book through either web or app channels by providing tailored browsing, exclusive discounts and rewards, a streamlined booking process, enhanced pre-travel support, and in-resort experiences.
In the last 13 months, we can see that retention rates are 7.5% higher for myJet2 members, so we know this is working. On myJet2P erks, this now includes more offers from brand partners across a range of categories, as well as prize draws, which will continue to be updated weekly. In addition, our two-fold investment in the mobile app and myJet2 scheme should also reduce reliance on more expensive third-party marketing tools. Together, these form our strategic approach to driving bookings. On the subject of technology and personalization, adopting technology to leverage real-time personalization and automation across the customer journey is essential. We provide real-time triggered emails and app push notifications to a highly personalized web and app experience and targeted paid media. This is done by enabling an omnichannel customer experience using state-of-the-art Adobe products.
This suite of products enables us to market to the right customer at the right time via the right channel, with the right content, the right images, with the right price. This will prove essential in providing a highly targeted and personalized marketing experience to all our customers. Finally, onto the outlook. For year-ended 31st of March 2026, our winter capacity is up 8% to 5.5 million. The later booking profile continues with average pricing following the summer 2025 trend, and we will have additional Gatwick short-term startup investments. To summarize, operating profit is in line with market expectations, excluding the Gatwick investment. Onto year-ending 31st of March 2027, summer 2026 seat capacity is up 8.9% to 20.1 million. That includes the Gatwick capacity. Existing bases are up by 3.9%, and Gatwick is 900,000 seats, and we have a healthy proportion of cost certainty locked in.
Near term, there will be operating profit margin dilution from the Gatwick investment, but of course, this is a significant long-term opportunity. Final summary, we have a clear path to deliver further profitable growth underpinned by our trusted brand, loyal customer base, and proven business model, which gives us ongoing confidence in our growth prospects. That's the end of the presentation. Thank you very much for listening, and we will go on to questions and answers.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We have a lot of people on the call this morning, so kindly limit yourself to a maximum of two questions only, and if there is time at the end, then we will come back to answer any remaining ones. Thank you.
We'll now take our first question from Damian Brewer of Canaccord Genuity. Line is open, please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning everyone. Two questions, one for Steve, one for Gary. Steve, Gatwick's undeniably, it's a huge market, and except for Jet2, sorry, except for TUI, who are still quite small there, it now seems to be covered mostly by seat-only airlines that seem to have very transactional relationships with hotels rather than deep, long-standing ones. Can you expand a little bit more about how your hotel operators and providers have reacted to Jet2 expanding into Gatwick, how they've reacted, what they're saying to you, and what the opportunity there is? And then the second question, I'll do them all in one go.
Gary, I know the GBP 600-700 million minimum net liquidity within the in-year cycle and the net debt EBITDA remaining below two times for the capital allocation policy. What would cause you not to consider further share buybacks beyond the next GBP 100 million? Thank you, gents.
Thank you. Good morning, Damian and everybody else. Thanks for the question. Our hotel partners have reacted extremely positively and very well. On the day of the announcement, I had several emails and text messages and some phone calls from hoteliers that were very pleased that we had announced the start of operations from the end of March. They already receive customers from all our other 13 bases in the U.K., and they like our operation. They like the fact that customers come on our airline. We cancel very, very few, hardly any flights, the lowest of all the airlines.
We look after our customers in the airport, on the aircraft, and when they get in resort with our Red Team of customer helpers, the customers arrive at the hotels very happy. A happy customer, of course, is someone that looks for less things to complain about. We have got our customer helpers in many of our hotels, and they help diffuse situations so it is easier for the hotel. They do not have to deal with angry customers at the reception desk because they contact us, and we sort out any issues that arrive before they get to the hotel. It is a much easier and seamless experience for the hotel, and they are really looking forward to receiving guests that come from Gatwick Airport.
I think Gatwick, in the past, to your earlier point, has been quite heavily orientated to flight only, but we are expecting to build our package holiday operation from Gatwick, and so far, the response from customers and indeed the hotels has been very, very positive. I am very encouraged and very excited, Damian, and I think we will see our operation grow, and we will be taking many people from the Gatwick catchment area on one of our holidays.
Hi, Damian. It's Gary. Thanks for your question.
Morning.
I think, as you know, and as you've seen over the last 12-18 months, we are very much open to returning capital to shareholders. Why wouldn't we consider doing that in the future? I think, first things first, we have talked about that return of capital to shareholders depends very much on trading.
Assuming that continues in a positive vein, then we would definitely consider it. I think, secondly, we have to continue to invest in the business. It is an evolving consumer landscape out there, and inevitably, if you do not invest, you have not got a resilient business in front of you. Strategic projects that gave us a better return than we could get in the market at the time for share buyback would definitely take precedence. Today, though, based on the valuation out there, we believe that returning capital to shareholders is a very good use of funds, the GBP 100 million. Just the third thing to say is that, based on our best thinking at the moment and with the CapEx profile coming down the road, it is about GBP 600 million in FY 2027, over GBP 1 billion in FY 2028, FY 2029.
We're fully expecting the own cash at the low point in the cycle to start to approach the numbers you mentioned before, GBP 600 million-GBP 700 million. That all being said, I think there's a very good chance that in the future there will be more buybacks, but I'm not going to pin the tail on the donkey on this call.
Okay. Thanks very much.
Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question from Jarrod Castle of UBS. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. Just sticking with the Gatwick theme, but broader than that, I mean, how do you see the existing competition with EasyJet at Luton, Bournemouth? I mean, different product, but just to get your views on that, they're also having a mini CMD next week, Friday, so I'm sure they will explain how they can compete with you.
And then, Steve, you spoke a bit about AI. I just wanted to get your thoughts on AI agentic. We're seeing kind of these big deals being signed this week. I think it was Google with Booking and some of the hotels like Marriott, IHG, and others tying up with OpenAI. How do you see that developing and the ability of these providers to connect to hotels so that you can make the booking directly, even if they're not the merchant of record? So just a little bit about that rather than AI in terms of revenue management and CRM. Thanks.
Okay. Thank you. In terms of the first point, competition, we're very confident in our product. We have a well-established package holiday operator.
Don't forget, we were the pioneers of variable duration holidays, completely flexible holidays, and we also consistently deliver best-in-class customer service, which has been demonstrated through our multi-award winning record over the last few years. I think people will be attracted to our product. We've had many people within the Gatwick catchment area asking for our flights and holidays there for some time. We've finally been able to do it this year, and I think the response will be very good. To your points, what will be the competitor's response? I don't know. We'll see. We keep our head on our own game, which is providing best-in-class customer service, looking after our customers, listening to our customers, giving them the ability to book through whichever channel they want to by looking after them on the ground, in the air, and in resort.
I'm confident that will shine through and make the operation from Gatwick a success as it is in our other 13 bases. In terms of the AI question, there's been a few announcements over the last few days, as you said, as to what might happen. You have to bear in mind these are largely trials, the things that are being released, and they're largely in the U.S. The U.S. doesn't really have a package holiday market. People tend to, what we call, self-package. That's book individual elements separately. The trials with some of the AI tools are relating to one of those components. I think there's a long way to go before we reach something that would provide a tool for people to book package holidays. That will come, but it will take time. I think there will be further developments in the industry.
There may be consolidations. There will be new products, products that are in the market now that are relevant, that become superseded and obsolete. What we have to do is keep our eye on what's happening in the market and all the developments, keep up our regular conversations with tech companies, which we do. We spend a lot of our time talking to tech companies to see what's coming down the track. As we saw in the early 2000s, it's very tempting to jump on whatever bandwagon is passing and put all your eggs into one basket. We are being very careful and very considered on our choice in technology. We have signed deals with big, robust, financially sound, market-leading technology companies, and we are working our way through to see how the environment changes over the coming years.
I'm very confident that we're back to the right horses, and with our methodical approach, we will come up with the right solutions for customers.
Thanks very much.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question from Alex Paterson of Peel Hunt. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everybody. You described the performance at the new bases as being encouraging. Can you just sort of give a bit more color on that, perhaps describe the load factors and package holiday mix relative to the group average and the profiles of other bases when they opened, and what sort of startup losses you've incurred there? Secondly, as a West Sussex resident, I'm absolutely delighted that you're opening a base at Gatwick. Do you think Gatwick would make any more slots available to you before the second runway opens?
Thanks. It's Gary.
Just in terms of the new bases, yeah, as I say, we're very encouraged, and I'll take you back to even Liverpool, which is still a new base. We put a fifth aircraft in there this summer, and Liverpool had a load factor of about 85%, but a package holiday mix of 73%. You can see that particular region is outperforming the average. Bearing in mind you've put in quite a significant increase in capacity, a load factor of 85% is pretty good, to be honest with you. In terms of Bournemouth and Luton, remember, Luton went on sale a lot later than any of our other bases, and they've come in at about 80% load factor. Again, the package holiday mix is very encouraging, about 60% for those new bases.
What we find is that if we can get that package holiday mix into the 60s, you get a better level of loyalty and recurring revenue and profitability. We are more than hopeful that with a full season of selling, certainly Luton and Bournemouth will be closer to the average, and the package holiday mix will continue to drift up. I think we were on record as saying that we expected Bournemouth to pretty much break even because it is a relatively small base with just two aircraft. We are on track to deliver that performance for the full year. We expected Luton to be sort of late single digits loss in its first year of operation, partly because, as I say, it has gone on sale a lot later. Again, we are on track to deliver exactly what we said there.
Hopefully that gives you a bit more transparency there. I'll pass to Steve in terms of the Gatwick slots, the extra slots. Thank you.
Yeah, as we said, the Gatwick slots, we got those as a result of extra capacity that was released within the airport, so we didn't pay for those slots. We've got a program on sale from the 26th of March 2026 for summer 2026. We'll be putting our winter program on in summer 2027 in the coming weeks. We continue to work with the slot coordinators, and we'll see what additional capacity comes up. We very much hope to grow our operation in Gatwick over the coming years.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question from Rory Cullinan of RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning.
Firstly, how should we think about the balance between flight-only and package holiday pricing this year? Why has it made sense to discount flight-only prices rather than package holiday prices more? Secondly, on the longer-term capacity growth, which Steve mentioned should average around 4.4%, I think, is that purely driven by the fleet plan and upgazing, or will you aim to utilize A321neos more than older aircraft or operate more daily flights from new bases in the south of England? Thank you.
Hi, Rory. Just in terms of the first question, we've consistently stressed that this is a fully integrated operating model, and it's capable of adapting to consumer trends, but also our clear demonstration that we're focusing on optimizing profitability through volume pricing and product mix.
This particular summer, because it has been late in terms of the consumer booking behavior, on average, about 11% of the bookings have been in the month of departure. That has played a little bit more to flight-only. What has been pleasing from our point of view is that we have always said that both products are extremely important, and it is great to see that customers are recognizing the clear value that our flight offering brings: friendly flight times, industry leader for not canceling flights, the added benefit of our Red Team of customer helpers providing outstanding customer service. I think people do see that even with a more commoditized product, there is a clear difference in terms of what they expect from Jet2 and why they will spend a little bit more money with Jet2.
With the late booking curve and the fact that it was a more price-sensitive market, yes, we did get more promotional than we have in the past. That said, though, I do not see pricing and marketing as two separate pots. They are all one and the same, really, in terms of how you invest your money. We were very strategic and targeted in terms of how we released money from marketing and put that into price to get to the best possible outcome for the business, which, as we said right at the outset, was a record performance again.
Thanks, Gary. On to the second question relating to capacity. We have given a figure for capacity growth over the coming years, and that is driven by our fleet plan at the moment. That takes into account the new aircraft that are due to come into the fleet.
We've received 23 Airbus A321neo aircraft. I'll just remind you, those are the most fuel-efficient, quietest aircraft in the class. We've got, over the next 10 years, another 132 to come into the fleet. Now, those aircraft will fulfill two purposes. The first of all, to replace older retiring aircraft, and the second will be to fuel growth within the fleet. We do have flexibility. We've got upwards flexibility. We can retire aircraft perhaps at a slower rate or take ACMI aircraft if there are growth opportunities, and we can retire aircraft at a faster rate if the growth opportunities seem a little bit more limited. The number we've given you can be flexed up or down in relation to market conditions. The number we've given is our current view as to the rate of retirement of current aircraft and entry into service of the new aircraft.
There is also, as you said, an element of upgazing. We will be replacing largely our 189-seat 737-800s with our 232-seat Airbus A321neo. The growth is driven by, A, more aircraft into the fleet, but we have flexibility as to what the net impact is, and secondly, upgazing of our aircraft. I think the big message here is, although we have given a number, there is a lot of flexibility about what that number can be over the coming years, both upwards and downwards.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Gerald Khoo of Panmure Liberum. Please go ahead.
Morning, everyone. Two if I can. Firstly, just thinking, I suppose, maybe we do it for FY 2027, but what proportion of seat capacity is going to be at relatively new bases?
If we just say bases that open less than three years and where they're still working their way up to the maturity scale. Secondly, also on bases, once you've done Gatwick, is that going to be largely it in terms of new bases? Is there enough growth headroom in the existing bases? Are there any other opportunities or any other bases that are still looking interesting beyond Gatwick?
In terms of the capacity relating to new bases, if we class new bases as Gatwick, Luton, Bournemouth, and let's say Liverpool, we don't have the exact figure to hand, but it's 11%-12% maybe of our total capacity in those bases. I wouldn't really count Liverpool as a new base. No, that is maturing very quickly. In terms of, is that it?
Gatwick was the last big airport in the U.K. that we had aspirations to grow into. When we've met many of you that are on the call, I think we've said that we would love to start operations into Gatwick, but the ability to do so was limited through the availability of slots. The airport managed to release some extra capacity through some work that had been done on the airport infrastructure, and we were able to grab that capacity. I think the aspiration that we set out in our meetings with you has been achieved. Is that it? I don't know. I'd never say never. We're always looking at opportunities within the U.K., but Gatwick was certainly the base that we'd always intended to grow into. You mustn't forget, Gerald, that there's enormous opportunity still in our 13 existing bases to grow.
We've got other bases that we think there's a very strong business case for increasing capacity. Over the last couple of years, we've prioritized our aircraft into starting a base at Liverpool, at Luton, at Bournemouth, and laterally Gatwick. Put those aside, there are another 10 bases in the U.K. that we have a fantastic opportunity to grow in. Over the last two years, we have launched four new bases. That's quite a lot. We can't take our eye off the ball on our existing bases. There's more work we want to do there. I think we'll probably be entering a period of stability where we'll be growing our new bases and maturing the ones that have been launched recently whilst taking care and strengthening our older bases.
Thanks very much.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question from Ava Costello of Davy.
Please go ahead.
Thank you. Morning, Gary. And just two for me, please. The first one is on the package and flight-only mix. For summer 2026, where do you expect the mix to go versus summer 2025? Obviously, Luton and Bournemouth bases maturing and hopefully moving towards the EM network average. What do you expect the impact from Gatwick to have on the mix? The second one is a little bit more long-term focus. How much of the growth deliveries could you potentially go to Gatwick? Is that solely dependent on a new runway, or do you see more capacity coming online organically from these tech advancements?
Hi, Ava. It's Gary. In terms of the package holiday flight-only mix, as I said before to one of the questions, it very much depends on the market you're in at the time.
I'll repeat that we're constantly solving for the best bottom line outcome, whether volume, pricing, or mix. In terms of how we're looking at it for next financial year, I think if we can be flat in terms of package holiday mix, I think we will be very pleased with that. Early indications, and I will stress it is very early indications for summer 2026, are playing that sort of theme out at the moment. If, and again, it remains to be seen what the capacity in the industry looks like for next year. Our initial reads are between 2.5%-3% at the moment.
If there is a rebalancing between supply and demand, which generally happens in this industry, what it means then is consumers do not leave it quite as late to book, which plays more into more of the planned holiday products more than the impulsive holiday products. If we can achieve flat next year, I think we will be pretty pleased. That is still pretty much in line with what we have always said for a full year outcome between 60%-65% on package holiday mix. We have been pretty consistent over the years in restating that.
Thanks, Gary. On your second question in relation to Gatwick, we have no intention of standing still with six aircraft operating in and out of Gatwick. It is true that we are able to launch the six aircraft as a subject of some infrastructure work that was done at the airport.
You must remember there are movements of fleets in Gatwick all the time. Some airlines increase their operations, some airlines decrease their operation, and there are slot opportunities that come up regularly. I hope we will be able to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way over the next few years. What is likely is the second runway will be approved, and that should come into operation in about 2030. While that sounds a long way away, we have summer 2027 on sale already, and we are starting to think about winter 2027, 2028. Summer 2030 will be on us before we know it. The key is, first of all, to grow and mature our Gatwick operation. We said in our release that it will take time to mature that operation.
Secondly, we keep up dialogue with the airport and the slot coordinators to see what opportunities come our way. You have known us for quite a while. You know that we have a track record of grabbing opportunities as they come up, of which the recent announcement into Gatwick is a perfect illustration of. We will keep up dialogue and keep watching what is happening and make any announcements in due course if we have something to say.
Thank you. Thanks, Gary.
Thank you. We will now take our next question from Andrew Lobbenberg of Barclays. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. I cannot believe we have got this far in the call and no one has mentioned the B word. How do you see consumers reacting about the looming budget? Do you see it as being a clearing event and driving more consumer confidence once we are through it?
Yeah. What are your thoughts around the budget? And then being on Gary and Gary's stuff, we're all asking about that, isn't it? How do you think about the costs of operating at Gatwick? The wonderful Wizz have been saying that it's a really expensive airport and they need to get out of there. I don't know whether you would think about that, but I mean, how does it look to you for airport charges and indeed also for the local labor market, which I think is pretty hot?
Okay. In terms of the budget, I haven't really got anything to comment on because I don't have any detail. I look at the newspapers on a daily basis and hear the latest scare stories to what's going to happen.
I mean, if you add up all these scare stories, there's going to be an additional GBP 15 trillion raised in the budget. I don't really take too much notice of the individual policy speculations that I discussed. What I do think, though, is that the government shouldn't be imposing any more tax on air travel and holidays. It already collects an enormous amount of tax from the airline and holiday industry. I think it's gone on long enough that this industry is used as a cash cow. I would urge the government not to increase taxes any further on air travel because that will inevitably put up prices and could price some people out of the ability to take a holiday. Those people will be the lowest paid members of society, which strikes me as being patently unfair.
What we do have, however, as a great defense is our customer service. In economic times like this, people tend to gravitate around the brands they know, the brands they trust, and the brands they know will deliver great customer service consistently on every holiday. That is what you tend to see, that people gravitate to these brands. You've seen our commentary on our Net Promoter Scores, on customer satisfaction, on our rebook rate. We expect this to be a massive form of defense during any potential reverberations from the budget. I'm pretty confident, I'm very confident, in fact, that we should be able to navigate through whatever is thrown at us next year because we'll be shored up by our fantastic customer service. In terms of Gatwick costs, obviously, I can't comment on those.
If you offer a great customer service, that enables you much more to sell the product. We've got the best reputation for customer service. I'm very encouraged by the sales so far at Gatwick. It's been less than a week, but I'm very encouraged by them. I think people are recognizing that we are recognized as number one for customer service and being drawn to our brand. Many companies operate just on a price level and tend to deprioritize customer service. We prioritize customer service, and we think we have an absolute duty to provide people that perhaps have worked for 50, 51 weeks of the year to go on their highly valued holiday. We feel it's our duty to treat every one of our customers as a VIP, whether they fly to only on a two-star holiday, a five-star holiday, self-catering, all-inclusive. It doesn't matter.
We treat all our customers the same. That is very much as a VIP. That has been our philosophy over the last 20-odd years at Jet2, 15 years at Jet2h olidays. That will remain our philosophy and the core of our strategy.
Thank you. We will now take our next question from Richard Stewart of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Two questions for me, please. Apologies, I got cut off. I may have been repeating one. The first question is on Gatwick. Could you give us some guidance in terms of what the startup cost would be for this year and the shape of the costs as you reach profitability to FY 2029? I know you are saying that after that, it will be meaningfully profitable.
Do you assume that there'll be sort of more slots and more aircraft in that, or do you think it'll be meaningfully profitable even on the six aircraft that you have at the moment? The second question, just really on the cost outlook for next summer, could you tell us, please, what you're seeing in terms of cost inflation for accommodation and fuel and what you would expect then to be sort of the average selling prices of your packages looking forward to next summer? Thank you.
Thanks, Richard. In terms of Gatwick, we believe that in terms of the booking costs that will incur in this financial year to generate the bookings for next summer, plus labor costs, plus promotional content, etc., between GBP 10 million-GBP 15 million, we reckon, in this financial year.
We want to be as resilient as possible going into summer 2026 to make sure that we can provide the best possible product and service to what essentially are all new customers. We need to show them exactly what Jet2 is about. As Steve has just reinforced, it's all about making customers feel special. If you want to do that, then you need to spend the right amount of money setting that base up. In terms of FY 2027, if you take Luton, I guess, as a guide, we said sort of late single-digit losses in its first year. That was with two aircraft. We have six at Gatwick. We are also doing it because it was an opportunity that was slightly ahead of our expectations. We are also doing that with less efficient aircraft or part less efficient aircraft in the form of ACMIs.
Inevitably, there is an incremental cost there. A bit like Luton, Gatwick is going on sale even later than Luton. Therefore, there will be some price investment. I think you can do the maths on that and come up with your own answer. In FY 2028, those ACMI aircraft will fall away. We will be selling across the whole selling cycle. We will be better known, etc. Therefore, we expect whatever those losses are in your model to halve, is what I would say, and then move into profitability. In terms of cost inflation, it is still very early, to be honest with you. The accommodation market is moving around depending on what demand looks like, not just from the U.K., but from Europe as well in terms of the Nordics, the German market, etc.
I would expect accommodation inflation to be in or around 5%, but I may be proven wrong ultimately. We've yet to even decide on what a wage increase looks like for our colleagues. Clearly, we've got one eye on CPI, etc. I'm sorry, I can't help you any more than that. In terms of fuel, you asked about, we're about 70% hedged, I think, for summer 2026. At the moment, the fuel rate is about 10% better, but remember, fuel is only 10% of our overall cost base. The other side of that equation, on FX, a bit of a benefit on the dollar, but we do buy 4 billion worth of euros. The pound has been weaker against the euro pretty much through that whole buying cycle. Hopefully, that helps you in terms of some of your modeling.
That's great. Thanks a lot, Gary.
Thank you.
We'll now take our next question from Axel Stasse of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two if I may. The first one is on the additional capacity for next summer, approximately 4% excluding Gatwick. If you include Gatwick, it's approximately 9%. I think your competitors are significantly lower than this. How do you think about fares or even load factors going forward? Do you say your competitive edge is enough or at least sufficient enough to maintain the fare stable or, yeah, just to have your view on this? The second question is on the cost certainty locked in for FY 2027 that you mentioned in the slides. Can you maybe elaborate here? Where are you most comfortable with?
What is already locked in, if I can put it like this? How should we maybe even look at the airline cost per seat or per capacity growth year over year in FY 2027? Thank you.
On the first question in terms of the capacity growth, yeah, we've said our capacity growth in existing bases is 3.9% and including Gatwick, about 9%. That's one of the lowest levels of growth we've announced for some years. We don't have an accurate read on what the rest of the market is doing yet, and we won't know that with total accuracy until the end of January when people make the final slot declarations.
You should bear in mind that some of that additional capacity is due to us putting A321neo in some of the bases, which, as we said earlier, is an up gauge, and that is 232 seats as opposed to 189. The cost associated, the seat cost with those 232 seats, is much lower. Some of the capacity increase is offset by efficiencies on cost. We are confident with the capacity we have got. If we need to make any more adjustments, we will do that as we did with summer 2025 and we have done with winter 2025, 2026. We have a very flexible model and a very flexible approach to capacity management. That is the number today, 3.9% and 9%. If we feel we need to make adjustments, we can do that. At the moment, we are confident with those two numbers.
The second question, I guess it's a similar answer to what I just gave to Richard, really. We're about 70% hedged for US dollar and fuel. Fuel about 10% cheaper in terms of the rate at the moment. The U.S. dollar is about 2% better, but 50% hedged for euro, we're probably 2% worse at the moment. There are a lot of moving parts before we have a very clear view of how that translates into the cost base and cost per seat. Just in terms of cost per seat as well, we don't have sight yet of euro control fees, which are obviously very important to us in terms of cost per seat. Normally, we have a better view as we get sort of into January, late January, early February.
We also have a better view of the market at that point in time as well because everyone's put their slots into the system. We'll be able to give you a better view at that point in time. Obviously, we'll look to price anything in. As Steve pointed out before, in terms of the budget coming up, we don't know what that looks like either. There are a lot of moving parts, is what I would say. I'm not being evasive, but there are.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question from Harry Gowers of JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Morning, gents. Thanks for taking the questions. First one, maybe you could just talk through the flight-only pricing, how that's behaved or changed over recent months.
Do you think the kind of - 7% level is potentially a trough or a bottom, or should we be thinking the winter could still come in a little bit worse than that in terms of the outlook? Sorry if I missed this earlier, but just on Gatwick, where could that package mix maybe come in over time? Are you expecting the Gatwick market or catchment area to be any different versus the rest of the network, just in terms of attractiveness of the product, demand for package holidays, etc., etc.? Thank you.
Just in terms of the flight-only pricing, I think we guided to mid-single digits down. It is slightly worse than that. I would not say it is materially worse, but it is slightly worse with the 7%. At the end of the day, I will repeat again, I am sorry.
We do constantly look at that volume pricing mix dynamic to drive the best possible bottom line outcome. I think we've done that in the first half. In addition, as I say, we look at price part, marketing part as one and the same thing. What we've been able to do is be very targeted in terms of how we've reduced our marketing spend and where we've put that in terms of pricing across both products, actually, to drive the best possible outcome for the business. In terms of winter, it's similar at the moment. Holiday pricing is pretty resilient, and flight-only is in negative territory, not quite at the - 7%. What I would say is that there's still 50% of winter seat capacity to sell, which tends to be sold from January onwards.
Depending on what the market looks like, we may need to invest a little bit more in price, or we may not. Only time will tell, but we're balancing the component parts to get the right possible outcome, I think, is what is safe to say.
In relation to the package mix, we did say when we announced the start of our operation that package mix would be lower, and we would build that over subsequent years. Just because people haven't had perhaps a great choice in the package holiday market at Gatwick previously doesn't mean that they won't do in the future. They will be and are being attracted by, as I said earlier, our customer service ethos by our award-winning product. They will be attracted to that. Sales have started very encouragingly. It's only a week.
I would just caution that we're only a week into it, but I'm very encouraged by overall sales and package holiday sales. I think we offer what people want: great customer service, but one price. Why would you want to book a flight, a hotel, and a transfer separately and have all that hassle of going on three websites and messing about, waiting three lots of transactions? You can secure your holiday for GBP 60 deposit all in one transaction, knowing A, it's with a company that has by far the best customer service in the industry, and B, the company that has by far the lowest cancellation rates of flights. If there's air traffic control issues, we don't cancel flights, carte blanche. We fight to get people on their holiday. I think that's going to be a very attractive proposition.
We know that because it's very attractive in all our other bases. Also, people from the Gatwick area have been asking us consistently for a long period of time to start operations there. There is a huge amount of demand pent up for both package holidays and, more specifically, package holidays from Jet2holidays.
That's all clear. Gary's there.
Thank you. There are no further questions. Thank you. I will now hand it back to Steve and Gary for any closing remarks. Thank you.
First of all, thank you for your time this morning. It's been an hour and a half and very much appreciated. Thank you for your questions. It's been actually a pleasure to get so many questions from you. I hope we've answered them satisfactorily. I hope you're pleased with the results.
We are, just to reiterate, it is a record set of results. We are continuing to invest for growth. We have seen that with our aircraft order, our new hangar at Manchester, our base at Gatwick, our retail operations center. Thirdly, we are continuing to create value for shareholders through our increasing dividend and also the announcement of a GBP 100 million share buyback starting on the 1st of December. Fourthly, our investment into our product and our brand, which is continuing to retain existing customers but also attract new customers. That is not only at Gatwick and Luton and Bournemouth and Liverpool, but we continue to attract new customers at our other 10 bases also. That is it on the call, I think. Thank you very much. I hope you are as pleased with the results as we are. I am sure we will speak to many of you over the coming days. Thank you.