In November 2025, Jet2 announced that it would launch a base at London Gatwick Airport (LGW), opening up 29 leisure-focused routes to destinations across Europe, mostly along the Mediterranean Coast. The Engine Cowl analysis, conducted a few days after the announcement, showed that the airline’s new routes from the airport had significant overlap with incumbents.
With the base having now launched, have Jet2’s competitors responded to the airline’s expansion at LGW?
New routes
According to data from Cirium’s Diio Mi, easyJet will launch thrice-weekly service from LGW to Reus Airport (REU). This is the only new competing route launched after Jet2's base announcement and means that easyJet will compete on all of Jet2's routes from LGW with the exception of Girona Airport (GRO) where easyJet serves Barcelona El Prat Airport (BCN).
Meanwhile, British Airways has added daily flights between LGW and Kalamata International Airport (KLX) after moving the route from London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) to LGW in 2025 (although this was scheduled prior to Jet2's announcement).
Frequency additions
In addition to the two new routes, competitors have added frequencies on 17 routes in July, with most of the additions being in the single digits.
There are also cases where competitors have reduced capacity. On flights from LGW to Faro International Airport (FAO) in July, all airlines but Jet2 have scheduled fewer weekly departures. TUI Airways will exit two markets where Jet2 has launched service: FAO and Preveza International Airport (PVK).
The table below does not include competitors with fewer than three overlapping routes.
Overall, the network launched by Jet2 at LGW has seen a relatively muted competitive response from incumbents.
There are likely two factors at play here:
- The incumbents mostly already operate significantly higher frequencies than Jet2 on each route
- Slot constraints at LGW mean that any response to Jet2's market-entry is a zero-sum game; the competing airline would have to fund that capacity with slots reallocated from another market.
Rytis Beresnevicius
