Budget Airline Jet2.com Seeks 1,000 New Staff In Expansion

Jet2.com says it is to create almost 1,000 new jobs in the next phase of its expansion.

The budget airline said it wants to recruit 180 pilots, 700 cabin crew and 80 engineers and will be staging a number of roadshows for people interested over the coming weeks.

The company, which operates more than 60 aircraft from Leeds Bradford, Belfast International, Birmingham, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle airports, recently announced plans to buy 30 more planes.

The self-styled leisure airline said the roles would support its ambitions covering the next two years.

Steve Heapy, chief executive of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, said: "We have exciting plans to expand the number of destinations we fly to, as well as the number of UK bases we fly from, and this means that our team is growing all the time."

Jet2 is expanding at a time when there is caution across large parts of the holiday and travel sectors in the wake of the UK's vote to leave the EU.

EasyJet (Other OTC: EJTTF - news) , which is mulling a move abroad for its headquarters , has already reported a currency hit, while holiday firms are also worried the collapse in sterling's value will dampen demand for overseas travel.

Ryanair - among the most vocal business supporters of the Remain camp during the referendum - launched its London Summer 2017 schedule on Wednesday, which included 24 new routes.

The company had warned in July it would "pivot" growth away from UK airports and instead focus on hubs in the EU.