UK leisure carrier Jet2 will open a new base at London Gatwick airport next year and station five Airbus A321neos there. The expansion will enable new connections to mainland Spain, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Greece, Turkiye, Portugal, Malta, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria and Cyprus, notes the airline, specifying that it will serve 29 new destinations in total. Its first flight from Gatwick will depart to Tenerife on 26 March, just ahead of the Easter holidays. "This development marks a transformational next step in Jet2's ambitions, further underpinning and accelerating its growth strategy and expanding its presence in the south of England," says Jet2. Its move into Gatwick has been enabled by the release of extra capacity there. It has secured slots for six aircraft. In the fiscal year to end-March 2027, it will add three wet-leased aircraft to its operations, freeing up Airbus A321neo capacity for its new Gatwick base. The wet-lease capacity will then be replaced by new deliveries from Airbus in fiscal 2028. Jet2 foresees that its Gatwick operation can turn profitable in fiscal 2029 and deliver "meaningful profit growth thereafter". It will incur a "meaningful step-up in short-term investment" to firmly establish its position at the airport, it notes, including promotional and resourcing start-up expenses. Jet2 estimates that Gatwick serves a catchment area of 15 million people within a 1h reach, and that 85% of the UK population are within a 90min drive of an existing Jet2 base. "London Gatwick represents a key component of Jet2's longer term growth and value creation plan and we are pleased that this valuable opportunity has arisen earlier than management's original expectations," it adds. Chief executive Steve Heapy hails the move as an "incredibly exciting moment" for Jet2, and a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate our growth". He adds: "While establishing our holiday operations and service will understandably take time and investment in the short term, we expect to deliver meaningful profit growth in the longer term." Investment firm Goodbody sees the decision as a "very significant step forward for the carrier", saying: "It opens up a huge new market for Jet2, and it resolves the issue of where the additional capacity will be placed over the next few years." EasyJet currently operates the largest share of short-haul leisure connections from Gatwick, Cirium data indicates. In May 2026, for example, EasyJet operates 511 weekly flights to the leisure destination countries of Spain, Greece, Portugal and Turkiye, which, excluding the new capacity by Jet2, accounts for around half of the total number of flights to those countries. IAG joins EasyJet is potentially facing tougher competition as a result of Jet2's move. In combination, IAG carriers British Airways, Iberia and Vueling operate 317 weekly services from Gatwick to the four leisure-focused countries. In September, Jet2 disclosed that it would cut the number of seats on sale this winter and warned that full-year profits will be "towards the lower end" of analysts' forecasts, citing a "difficult" market and a growing trend for later bookings. It said that despite a strong summer, the trend to book tickets closer to departure had recently become "more pronounced". Given the less certain consumer environment, the carrier has reduced the number of seats on sale in winter 2025/26 to 5.6 million from the originally planned 5.8 million, and will "maintain attractive pricing" to stimulate demand. The company's share price has fallen nearly 23% over the past six months, but has edged up in 12 November trading.

Israel's El Al has warned that the return of foreign airlines to Tel Aviv could begin to blunt the strong earnings it has been generating over recent years. Reporting third-quarter results, El Al says that from the start of the current quarter, and following a ceasefire agreement, "the return of foreign airlines began to accelerate". The carrier previously had a near-monopoly of flights to and from Israel after foreign operators pulled out of the country on security grounds. El Al describes the change as "gradual" and believes that demand for its flights, and its load factors, will remain high although with "less intensity" compared with earlier in the year. Demand was strong through the third quarter as a dearth of competition steered Israelis to fly with the local carrier. It cites "high seasonal demand during the summer and holiday period" as well as occupancy rates and revenue per ASK that were even higher than last year, itself a period of strong performance. Load factor came in at 95.3%. The airline generated an EBITDAR result of $357 million for the period, up from $246 million a year earlier, on revenue that rose from $1 billion to $1.1 billion. Net profit came in at $203 million. El Al says its focus going forward is to expand its production and its available fleet, as well as to train up a growing workforce, including with recruitment and training of air and ground crews. In the current quarter, it plans to expand capacity 3.3%.

Boeing added orders for eight Max jets and seven 787s to its backlog last month, bringing its year-to-date tally to 836 gross orders as of 31 October. That compares with 378 at the same point in 2024. Data from the US airframer shows that the additional single-aisle orders included six from TUI. Boeing has not identified the customers behind the other new sales. BOC Aviation and Air Europa cancelled orders for five and two Max aircraft, respectively. Two orders were returned to the backlog from the ASC 606 accounting category, which is used to recognise that not all orders lead to deliveries. The changes brought net orders in October to 10. Across the first 10 months of the year, 54 orders were cancelled or converted and 65 returned from ASC 606. Hence year-to-date net orders were 847 at 31 October. Boeing maintained delivery momentum in October, handing 53 commercial aircraft to customers. That brought year-to-date deliveries to 493, up from 305 a year earlier. October 2025 deliveries spanned 39 Max jets, one 737NG-based P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, four 767s (two freighters and two tankers), seven 787s and two 777 Freighters. Boeing had delivered 41 737s and 14 widebodies in September. Year on year, deliveries increased 64% in that month and near-quadrupled in October. Production rates had been cut last year amid quality and safety issues and industrial action between September and November.