Jet2 Plans New Routes From Manchester

Yorkshire based airline Jet2.com has become likely to take over most of the routes operated by Ryanair from Manchester, following their announcement to withdraw the bulk of their flights from the airport due to the airport’s high fees.

The budget carrier, based at Leeds Bradford, announced three new services direct from Manchester within hours of Ryanair announcing their pullout from the city, with the move costing about 600 jobs.

The move comes as Ryanair announced it was launching 14 new routes from Leeds Bradford, competing directly with Jet2.com

A war of words was sparked by the announcement, with Jet2.com boss Philip Meeson and chief executive for Ryanair questioning each others “low fare” credentials.

Ryanair announced on Monday that it was planning to axe nine out of 10 routes from Manchester, leaving the only remaining service to Dublin.

Jet2.com will open new routes to the Greek Island of Kos, Venice in Italy and Gran Canaria from the start of 2010, which will create about 250 new jobs.

The Yorkshire based airline will increase frequency of its flights in summer 2010 to Lanzarote, Dalaman, Sharm el Sheikh and Tel Aviv and a delivery of new Boeing 737’s which will bring the total fleet to 7.

Jet2.com has said that August has been the busiest month for bookings since it commenced flying over six years ago.

Philip Meeson believes the services from Manchester will be successful, saying: “It is fantastic to be able to offer people flying from Manchester a number of new holiday destinations direct from the region. No other airline currently operates a scheduled service to Kos and Venice and we are confident that these will be extremely popular routes.”