Based at Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) in West Yorkshire, UK, Jet2 operates an all-jet fleet consisting of just under 100 aircraft. While Boeing is presently the dominant force, Airbus will increase its footprint at Jet2 in the coming years. Let's take a closer look at the makeup of Jet2's fleet today, and where it has been flying its older and rarer aircraft types over the past 12 months.
Dominated by Boeing 737s
According to data from ch-aviation.com, Jet2's present fleet consists of 95 jet aircraft. The dominant force at the airline is the Boeing 737 family, which accounts for 84 of these planes. This figure comprises both the 737-300 and 737-800 variants, of which the Yorkshire-based carrier operates seven and 77 examples respectively.
At the time of writing, ch-aviation lists all seven examples of the 737-300 as being active. These aircraft are almost twice as old as the 737-800s, clocking in at 24.8 years old on average. Each of them seats 148 passengers in an all-economy configuration. Historically, Jet2 has flown another 17 passenger 737-300s, as well as nine cargo-carrying examples of this variant.
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Jet2's 77 Boeing 737-800s are currently seeing similar intensive usage, with 73 of the 77 twinjets presently listed as active. These popular narrowbodies are 12.9 years old on average, and seat a total of 189 economy class passengers.
With the Boeing 737-300 variant now being something of a dying breed due to its age and the prevalence of newer models, its usage can be a particularly interesting point of analysis. Simple Flying took a look at where Jet2 flew these aircraft, finding that they were used on 25 routes out of its Leeds Bradford base. The most common destination was Palma de Mallorca, and you can read more here.
An increasing Airbus presence
While the 737 family dominates Jet2's current fleet, European manufacturer Airbus is also increasing its footprint at the airline. The carrier presently operates three Airbus A321s-200s, with these 220-seaters clocking in at 8.4 years old on average. This makes them the carrier's youngest aircraft, and the only type below 10 years.
Rather excitingly, Jet2 also had three widebody A330-200s on lease last summer, from AirTanker (2) and Wamos Air (1). These were present at the airline from May to October, and flew out of the carrier's Manchester Airport (MAN) base. Destinations that these widebodies served included Tenerife, Mallorca, and Faro.
In the future, Jet2 has much bigger plans for Airbus in the form of a significant order for the new A321neo. It initially announced this in August 2021, with 36 examples of the next-generation narrowbody requested. It has since added to this multiple times, and it rose to 57 firm orders for the Airbus A321neo in April 2022.
As it happened, this wouldn't be the last time that Yorkshire's airline committed further to the type. Indeed, ch-aviation shows that it now has 60 A321neos on order, and, last October, Jet2 also made headlines by ordering 35 smaller A320neos.
A small, aging Boeing 757 fleet
The oldest aircraft in Jet2's current fleet are its eight examples of the Boeing 757-200. While these larger twinjets provide useful extra capacity on high-demand routes, their days appear to be numbered. Indeed, their average age is a mighty 32.2 years old. Historically speaking, Jet2 has also operated a further six 757-200s.
According to ch-aviation, the 757s have space for 235 economy passengers. This dense layout offers passengers a knee-crunching seat pitch of just 29 inches, which could get a bit on the tight side on longer flights on the 757.
On that note, November 2022 saw Simple Flying take a look at the routes on which Jet2 would deploy its 'flying pencils' (so-called due to their long-thin appearance) over the winter season. Flying out of Manchester, almost all of their duties saw them take passengers to the Spanish winter sun. Other destinations, albeit served far less frequently, included Switzerland, Portugal, and Turkey.
What do you make of Jet2's current fleet? Have you ever flown with the Yorkshire-based leisure carrier? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!
Source: ch-aviation.com