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Jet2 takes a £300 million Government loan

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Dart Group, the parent company of Jet2, announced yesterday that it has arranged a £300 million Government loan.

The loan was arranged under the Covid Corporate Financing Facility, which is the same facility used by easyJet, Hungary’s Wizz Air and IAG.  The money has not yet been drawn but will be taken if required.

Dart Group does not have a third-party investment grade credit rating, which is a criteria for accessing this funding.  It has qualified via a process which allows companies to show that they could have qualified for an investment grade rating based on their financial position in early March.

In a statement, Dart Group said:

“The Group is grateful to both the Bank of England and HM Treasury for the provision of the CCFF, and together with the fully drawn Revolving Credit Facility of £100m, these two sources of additional liquidity will provide the Group with headroom to deal with the present disruption and associated working capital requirements, ensuring we can continue to support our great business through this challenging period.

Though still early, we continue to be encouraged by the volume of our customer bookings for summer 2021 and their associated pricing. Based on this limited visibility, we are confident that once normality returns, our Customers will be determined to enjoy the wonderful experience of a well-deserved Jet2 holiday and that Jet2.com and Jet2holidays will continue to have a thriving future, taking millions of UK holidaymakers annually, to the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and to European Leisure Cities.”

Comments (17)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • John says:

    I’m trying to empty a Tesco account but their stupid voucher system of keeping tesco bank points separate from normal points means I had £2 vouchers and 50 points that won’t be converted to vouchers ever, so can’t convert to avios. Not sure if worth it to calculate how much fuel to pump to sort this out. Why can’t they just use points like normal people

    • Dezbez says:

      Yeah why do they do that? (I’m the same.) no bank products now, so no chance of ever releasing them. Also, why does it take well over a week to ‘prepare’ the quarterly statements – it feels so antiquated.

      • WillPS says:

        Different rules about maximum amounts you can earn per statement, I believe. It is annoying though.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    Good news on Jet2. I have always enjoyed my flights with them and it is hopefully more jobs saved.

    • Craig says:

      It’s all very positive so far, fingers crossed.

    • Harry T says:

      They are one of the few airlines I haven’t heard bad things about during the current crisis.

  • Jake Mc says:

    Maybe this has been answered before but why could Virgin not access the same source of funds as Dart by showing they would have qualified for IG rating based upon the most recent financials?

    Is it that their current financials are not IG or another reason?

    • marcw says:

      The big problem is Virgin has ZERO assets. Nothing. High debt, LHR slots have been mortgaged, planes are leased,

    • TGLoyalty says:

      A house built on a massive pile of debt.

    • jamie says:

      Yes somewhat ironic now with all the negativity toward SRB that Virgin are the only airline NOT to have been given a bailout by the government

  • sayling says:

    Data point(?): Starbucks have also extended the expiry date on their Earned Free Drink rewards.

    • Rob says:

      Mine hasn’t reopened. My daughter got all excited when we found out that 150 were opening last week.

  • Peter K says:

    Congratulations Peter D

  • RussellH says:

    I wonder if Dart Group are now regretting having given up their Royal Mail contract in 2017?

    AIUI, they had specially designed 737s where the seats could be taken out in 30mins to leave plenty of space for post. All based on a hub at Liverpool.
    They would have kept the fleet operating throughout.

    • Craig says:

      Partly correct, the QCs (Quick Change) aircraft had a freight door and the seats could be rolled out in sections. They flew from various bases which didn’t include Liverpool, mostly into East Midlands and Stansted. The problem was that the aircraft were all old -300s and coming towards the end of their life, the cost to replace them with -800s wasn’t feasible. The QCs could also only do one passenger flight a day because the penalties on the Royal Mail contract were very strict.

  • Henry Young says:

    VS remains great value for getting from Hong Kong to London one way with low taxes. Economy redemption for 12,500 miles clocks in at 6c per mile using early June pricing. Literally a couple of hours a day on e-rewards for a couple of weeks will net you enough points for the flight. It’s a little bit of a gamble right now of course, but what’s life without a little excitement. Pro Tip – if you’re planning a non-interlined transfer through Hong Kong right now, better go hand baggage only. I suspect you won’t be let through immigration to collect and re-check your bags, on the basis that non-residents are not currently admitted and residents are immediately bused to Expo for testing withan 8 hour wait for results.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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