The Interview


Steve Heapy, Jet2holidays and Jet2.com


The chief executive of the UK’s second-biggest operator tells Lucy Huxley how it sprang into action after the collapse of Thomas Cook


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teve Heapy was in the Jet2holidays RƋFH E\ DP RQ 0RQGD\ 6HSWHPEHU Ť OHVV WKDQ DQ


KRXU DƏWHU WKH &LYLO $YLDWLRQ $XWKRULW\ FRQILUPHG ULYDO 7KRPDV &RRN KDG FROODSVHG First of all, he wanted to help with


the repatriation of stranded Thomas Cook passengers overseas – which Jet2.com did. And by the end of the day, the airline and operator had also put in extra capacity for October and winter 2019-20. By the end of the Wednesday, it had added extra capacity for summer 2020. The additional capacity was part


of a planning scenario Heapy had put in place in the event of Thomas Cook’s failure. “Cook was in a vulnerable position


for some time and as any responsible business should do, we made plans as to what we would do in the event of one of three scenarios: that Cook could materialistically change, be taken over or cease to exist,” he says. “It’s not that we hoped they


28 NOVEMBER 2019


would fail but we had to plan for each outcome – and the fact that we did meant we could react as fast as we did. “It would have been very difficult,


or impossible, to execute our plan from Japan,” he adds, in a playful dig at executives who jetted off to the Abta Travel Convention in Tokyo in the immediate aftermath of the failure. “Business comes first.” Jet2holidays has been adding


more capacity since – putting on extra flights from its nine bases, and extra aircraft out of Manchester, Birmingham and Stansted. This has been on existing routes, and seven new destinations: Preveza, Skiathos, Lesbos and Kalamata in Greece; Zadar in Croatia; Innsbruck in Austria; and Tivat in Montenegro. The extra capacity means there


will be 110 aircraft flying next summer, 10 more than this year. One suspects there is more to come. Preveza and Zadar were already


on sale before Cook went bust, but Heapy says plans to launch the other destinations were “accelerated” in the wake of the failure.


Filling a gap “The unfortunate demise of Thomas Cook created a gap that many customers wanted us to fill,” he says. In total, Heapy says he has raised


capacity by about one million passengers. It is understood Tui has added


roughly the same, while easyJet Holidays last week said it was hoping to sell at least a million package holidays next summer (its latest Atol is for just shy of 800,000). But Heapy is not fazed by others’ responses. “Tui has added capacity, but some


of that is long-haul, some is medium- haul and some is from bases we don’t fly from. We will give it time to see how the capacity shakes out, but I am confident about our future – and


about summer 2020 especially. “We are winning and welcoming


lots of new customers. It would be untrue to say our booking numbers hadn’t increased since the collapse of Thomas Cook.” Just last week, Jet2.com and


Jet2holidays’ parent company, The Dart Group, posted interim results which saw profits up by 2% to almost £340 million, with annual income forecasts expected to be “significantly exceeded”, no doubt in part due to the extra business coming through. Asked if he was ever tempted


to pick up some of Cook’s slots at Gatwick, Heapy replied: “No. We were never tempted by Gatwick. What we wanted to do was concentrate on putting more capacity


Other operators have stated their objective to increase direct business. That’s not our


strategy. We want our agent business to grow travelweekly.co.uk


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