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Jet2holidays now second biggest UK operator ahead of Thomas Cook

Jet2holidays has overtaken Thomas Cook to be the second largest Atold holder.

The Leeds-based operator is now licenced by the CAA to sell 2,936,420 Atol-protected seats. Thomas Cook Tour Operations is licensed for 2,459,518 when factoring in the Atols of subsidiaries Future Travel and Freedom Travel Group.

Jet2 added more than 650,000 extra seats in the week following Monarch’s failure while Thomas Cook added 230,000.

In April, Jet2holidays was licensed for 2.27 million seats and Thomas Cook and subsidiaries for 2.58 million.

Monarch carried 1.7 million passengers from Gatwick between November 2016 and August this year with an average 15 daily slot pairs.

Administrators KPMG believes it can sell the slots rather than them go out on a bid-basis.

The UK’s biggest operator, Tui UK, is licensed for 5.4 million passengers. It has added 250,000 extra seats since Monarch’s collapse.

Steve Heapy, chief executive of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: “This is great news for everyone associated with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays and is only possible thanks to the continued support of independent travel agents.

“There has been much written about the industry in recent times, but this goes to show what can be achieved through an unswerving focus on delivering the very best service for customers so that they enjoy a lovely holiday time and time again.”

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