#A40 Jet2holidays A321 print
Description
Squadron Prints Lithograph No. A40 - G-SUNB, Airbus A321-251NX, Jet2holidays.
Jet2.com’s history spans over 40 years of growth and innovation. The company commenced operations in 1983 as a cargo airline, Channel Express (Air Services), flying flowers grown in the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey to Bournemouth and returning with general freight and supplies. The Airline’s name changed to Jet2.com in February 2003, prior to the first leisure passenger flight from Leeds Bradford to Amsterdam. By 2023, Jet2.com had flown more than 100 million passengers to 70 holiday destinations in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and European Leisure Cities. Jet2.com has continuously expanded its operations to serve major cities and catchment areas. Flights from Manchester and Belfast Airports started in 2004, Edinburgh and Newcastle Airports followed in 2005 and Glasgow and East Midlands Airports in 2010. In September 2016 Birmingham and London Stansted Airports were announced as new bases with operations starting in March 2017. Furthermore, Bristol was announced as the 10th base with operations commencing in the Summer of 2021. The latest and 11th UK base at Liverpool is expected in March 2024. Very significantly Jet2Holidays was established in 2007 to provide our leisure passengers with a traditional package holiday product, the Jet2Holidays portfolio has grown to include numerous products such as Jet2Vibe, Jet2Villas, Jet2CityBreaks and Indulgent Escapes. The company will now be taking more than 4 million customers each year on ‘Package holidays you can trust.’ Channel Express started its Channel Island cargo services with two Handley Page Dart Heralds. The aircraft also flew nightly services to Bristol and Liverpool for Royal Mail, delivering urgent First class mail – the start of a proud period of continuous service to Royal Mail until 2017. In 1986 the company upgraded the avionics and instruments of its growing fleet of Dart Heralds to develop the ‘Super Dart Herald.’ By this time the company was flying night time air cargo services between the UK and European Cities on behalf of express parcel delivery companies TNT, Federal Express and United Parcel Service, each of whom were expanding their European Operations. To meet their fast-growing needs, Channel Express purchased Fokker F27s which, like the Herald, carried six tonnes of parcels, and in 1989 the first of five Lockheed L118 Electras, which carried a 15 tonne payload. In 1996 the company was the launch customer for the BAE systems conversion of the A300-B4, from a passenger aircraft to a freighter, with the incorporation of a large cargo door and strengthened floor, giving a 45-tonne payload and longer range; five were operated in service with Channel Express and named the ‘Eurofreighter’. The company introduced its first Boeing aircraft in 2001, the first of seven Boeing 737-300 ‘Quick Change’ aircraft. The Quick Change system enabled both 148 passenger and 16 tonne cargo capacity operations; with the conversion taking just 40 minutes. This innovation led to the profitable early development of Jet2.com with leisure passengers being flown in the day and mail at night. The Boeing 737-300 fleet was further expanded from 2003 with the purchase of 21 aircraft from Ansett Airlines of Australia. The first of 11 Boeing 757-200s with 235 seats went into service in 2005 and 2011 saw the introduction of the Boeing 737-800, seating 189 passengers. The Boeing 737-800 is a member of the successful ‘Next Generation’ 737 family, known for its comfort, reliability and fuel efficient advanced engine and wing technology. The aircraft can fly approximately 3,000 nautical miles with 189 passengers and luggage. In a significant milestone for the company, an order for 30 new Boeing 737-800s was announced on 3 September 2015, with an order for a further 4 made in December 2016. These aircraft were delivered between January 2016 and January 2019 forming part of a fleet of now 90 737-800s. In early 2020, the airline returned to flying Airbus aircraft with the acquisition of 3 A321ceo ‘current engine option’ aircraft. To support the growth of the airline and with fleet renewals, on August 31 2021, Jet2.com placed an initial order for 36 A321neo aircraft with the option to extended this to 60 aircraft. As of January 16th, 2024 this order has been increased to 110 aircraft with options for 146 including the A320neo variant. The A321neo is a member of the widely successful A320 family, the aircraft features significant advancements in fuel efficiency over previous generations such as Sharklet wing tip devices as well as the selection of the LEAP 1A high bypass turbofan engine of CFM to provide an approximate per seat fuel saving of 20% as well as range and payload advancements over the A321ceo. G-SUNB was delivered to Jet2.com on 31 March 2023 from the Airbus Delivery facility at Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport to East Midlands Airport as the first A321neo in the fleet. Powered by 2 CFM LEAP 1A engines, the aircraft has the capability to carry 232 passengers up to 4,000 nautical miles. The first revenue flight was on May 7 2023 from Manchester to Malaga. The fleet has now grown to 6 aircraft, with expansion continuing in the years to come and beyond 2030.
You may also like
-
Puma, Merlin, Apache, Gazelle, Wildcat, Chinook
ZJ233; ZB665; ZZ379; ZJ954; ZK550; ZJ122; ZH902R&S WingRAF Benson -
SIGNED King's Birthday Flypast 2024, Memorial Formation
ZJ913; ZK374; ZK38129 Sqn; BBMFRAF Coningsby