The airline and operator confirmed the milestone on Monday (13 February) upon publication of new Atol figures, which show Jet2holidays is now licensed to carry 5,859,600 Atol-protected passengers this year – 523,190 more than Tui UK. It comes after Jet2 inched to within around 35,000 authorisations at the last round of Atol renewals last October.
Heapy said Jet2’s decision to up its Atol came in response to "strong and continued demand" from people booking through independent travel agents, whom he were playing "an integral role" in in the firm’s continued success.
The announcement on Monday came after Jet2.com marked its 20th anniversary at the weekend, returning to its local airport and first-ever base – Leeds Bradford – for the celebration.
Jet2’s first flight took off from Leeds Bradford in 2003, bound for Amsterdam, with Jet2holidays launching four years later, initially licensed to carry just 23,000 passengers to 15 destinations.
In recent years, Jet2 has benefited – in particular – from the demise of several rivals, first Monarch and then most notably Thomas Cook, which has allowed the business to claim market share in a number of top destinations, including Spain, Greece and Turkey.
"Becoming the UK’s largest tour operator is a significant milestone in the history of Jet2holidays, but it will not change a single thing that we do," said Heapy. "Our continued success is because we have the best team in the industry who work tirelessly to look after our customers and independent travel agency partners, and we will never lose sight of that fundamental principle.
"The loyalty of those independent travel agency partners has been absolutely integral to our growth and success, so on behalf of everyone at Jet2holidays, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to every single one of them for their continued support and helping us get to this position today.
"I can promise we will repay that faith by continuing to focus resolutely on our partnership approach to working with independent travel agents and delivering the VIP customer service that seen us enjoy this success."
Jet2 will operate its biggest-ever summer programme this year, with more than 15 million seats currently on sale with Jet2.com to more than 65 sun and city break destinations, with the addition in recent weeks of new destinations and additional capacity.
On the Beach remain the UK’s third largest Atol holder (1.863 million authorisations), followed by fellow OTAs Loveholidays (1.854 million), Booking.com (1.738 million). EasyJet holidays is the next tour operator, sixth with just shy of 1.3 million Atol authorisations.
British Airways Holidays is seventh (848,380), Expedia eighth (636,171), BravoNext – Lastminute.com ninth (607,726) and Travel Republic tenth with 368,780.
