Corporate Responsibility
This Corporate Responsibility Report reflects the importance
the Group places on developing long-lasting relationships with its customers,
and enduring, effective partnerships with its suppliers, whilst acknowledging
and acting upon its responsibility to the communities within which it operates
and to the wider environment. The way in which the group pursues its objective of being a good employer is set out in the section entitled “Our People” in the Annual Report.
Relationship With Customers
We take people on holiday! Our UK
Leisure Travel business specialises in the provision of scheduled holiday
flights by our award-winning leisure airline, Jet2.com, and ATOL
licensed package holidays by our acclaimed tour operator, Jet2holidays, to
destinations in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and to European Leisure
Cities.
We know that taking a holiday is one of
the most important family experiences of the year and we relish the trust our
customers place in us to give them a fantastic holiday experience. Despite the current
challenges of Covid-19, going forward we remain committed to doing our very
best to ensure that each of our customers “has a lovely holiday” that can be
both eagerly anticipated and fondly remembered, supported by our core
principles of being family friendly, offering value for money and giving a
truly VIP customer service.
In the early stages of the Covid-19 crisis,
for those customers who were on holiday when travel restrictions came into
force, our team of Customer Helpers assisted in every way they could, leading
to positive feedback from satisfied customers who felt they were well-looked
after and well-informed throughout. In addition, and despite the severe
disruption and travel restrictions, we operated more than 60 repatriation
flights to bring our many thousands of customers safely home.
During the 3 months since the Covid-19
lockdown came into force, we have operated a fully functioning customer contact
centre of over 600 remote workers to ensure our valued customers receive
assistance in either rebooking a future holiday or obtaining a refund. As a
result, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays were ranked as
the best travel firms for providing refunds on the back of the pandemic,
according to a travel refund cancellation survey of more than 77,000 people by
MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE).
Relationship With Suppliers
Our Leisure Travel business is supported by
more than 3,800 non-hotel suppliers who work with us and we seek open,
constructive and effective relationships with them to help sustain the
successful delivery of the Group’s Leisure Travel services. In December 2019, our annual supplier
conference was held at which the Chief Executive Officer, the Group Chief
Financial Officer and a number of Jet2.com directors set out their
vision for the future and described how building partnerships with suppliers is
key to achieving mutual objectives and ultimately delighting our
customers. This full day conference
provided an opportunity for suppliers to ask questions directly to the directors,
and for the Group to learn more about what our suppliers require to build a
successful partnership.
The
Group has continued to invest in carefully developed relationships with over 4,000
Jet2holidays’ hotel partners, often placing substantial
deposits to secure a dependable and competitive room offering in the most
attractive hotels. Our Chief Executive Officer spends significant time overseas
developing these relationships, hearing first-hand from key partners about
their expectations and how the customer experience may be improved through the development
of their hotels. It is also an opportunity
to reiterate the importance of effective risk management by the hoteliers,
maintaining the highest standards of safety and hygiene at all times so that Jet2holidays
can continue to offer “package holidays you can trust”.
We also recognise
that paying both our hotel partners and non-hotel suppliers on time and in full
is vital for their financial well-being. Under the ’Duty to report on payment
practices and performance’ legislation, the Group has uploaded the relevant
supplier key performance indicators onto the HMRC government portal with the
average time taken to pay supplier invoices during the year being 25.3 days
(2019: 27.1 days).
Modern Slavery Act
The Modern Slavery Act requires the Company
to publish an annual slavery and human trafficking statement. The latest
statement can be found on the Jet2 plc website here.
Neither the Company nor any of its subsidiaries permit, condone or otherwise
accept any form of human trafficking or slavery in its business or supply
chains.
The Environment
The Group is keen to align its business
strategy with broader sustainability issues. This means that we not only work
within the business, but also take responsibility to effectively engage with
our partners, associations, supply chains and customers to achieve tangible and
long-lasting benefits to the environment and communities within which we
operate.
The Group takes its environmental
obligations seriously, with CO2 emissions from fuel having the
biggest impact. Although both travel and tourism contribute to climate change,
they are and will increasingly be, adversely impacted by it. Extreme weather
events, such as the recent sandstorms in the Canary Islands, can result in
delays, disruption and diversions to our flights, whilst the increased risk of
extreme weather events such as storms, floods and wildfires resulting from
climate change, can have a significant impact on coastal tourism.
Tackling climate change is therefore a
priority for the business. We endeavour to operate in the most efficient and
environmentally friendly way possible, minimising emissions and the carbon
impact per unit of product delivered (intensity). In addition, efficient
operation also helps to minimise our impact on noise and air quality.
The Group monitors its greenhouse gas
emissions and uses CO2 emissions per £ million of turnover as a
measure of its environmental intensity. In the year ended 31 March 2020, total
energy use from electricity, gas and fuel was 9.42 TWh (1), equating
to 2.5 kWh per £ turnover. The associated carbon emissions from this energy use
were 2.3 million tonnes (1), equating to 622 tonnes per £
million turnover.
Energy consumption and emissions primarily
arose from our aircraft operations and ground handling activities, along with
our Distribution & Logistics business, business travel, offices, hangars
and engineering facilities.
In the most recently
published Atmosfair index, Jet2.com was included in the top 15 of
the world’s most fuel-efficient airlines. Additionally, Jet2.com’s
CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre of 67g puts it amongst the
most efficient airlines in Europe.
Jet2.com supports the
introduction of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International
Aviation (CORSIA) and its goal of zero CO2 emission growth from
international aviation beyond 2020. We are developing a compliance strategy for
CORSIA which ensures we purchase carbon offsets which have additional benefits
beyond avoiding carbon emissions, such as increasing biodiversity, reducing
inequality and improving health & wellbeing.
Jet2.com also has a
continuous drive to operate more efficiently, through its “efficient flying”
programme. The impact of this programme in the year resulted in a marginal increase
in efficiency as CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre reduced from
67.03g to 66.95g, this despite considerable
disruption to the flying programme towards the end of the financial year. The
programme focuses on all aspects of the airline’s operation which can influence
or directly impact the efficiency of its flying activities including: single engine
taxi operations; careful fuel requirement planning; performance-based
navigation approaches; reduced contingency fuel; reduced thrust take offs and
continuous descents; and using electric ramp vehicles and fixed electrical
ground power and pre-conditioned air where available. These actions, combined
with ongoing weight saving initiatives from lightweight seats, lighter catering
carts, the removal of paper manuals and the introduction of carbon brakes have
saved over 30,000t CO2 this year. In addition, the Group’s previous
investment in 34 Boeing 737-800NG aircraft saved over 91,000t CO2
this year in a like-for-like comparison against our existing fleet, and 93% of
the total fleet is fitted with fuel saving winglets which also saved an
additional 90,000t CO2. Combined, these measures have saved over
211,000t CO2 this year, equivalent to taking 116,000 cars off the
road.
It is not only the environmental impact of
our aircraft fleet that we look to reduce. Our ground handling operations,
which deliver services to nearly 50% of our flights, have had material
investment in new equipment with 42% of our entire ground service equipment now
electric. With over 70% of our aircraft tractors meeting the Euro 5 / 6
standard, all ramp cars and minibuses meeting the Euro 6 standard, and
telemetry being installed on board our ground service equipment to monitor fuel
use, our equipment is highly efficient and minimises not only CO2
emissions, but also noise and pollutants that give rise to air quality issues,
thereby minimising the environmental impact on our local communities.
In addition to carbon emissions, we have
also focused on other environmental impacts within our operations. Our Inflight
Retail team have made good progress in reducing single use plastics, replacing
products with more sustainable alternatives such as wooden cutlery and
cardboard meal boxes. Where non-plastic alternatives are unavailable at
present, we are turning to products made from a higher proportion of recycled plastics
such as rPET water bottles. As part of our commitment to the circular economy,
we began our in-flight recycling programme in November 2019. We estimate this
programme will help us to recycle up to 50% of waste on-board as well as
enabling us to recycle material which previously would have gone to landfill,
such as rPET plastic products, closing the loop by ensuring these materials are
able to be used again.
Health, Safety and Security
The responsibility for the health and
safety of all colleagues and customers, whilst in our care, is a key priority
for the Group and is described in more detail on pages 25 and 26 of the Jet2 plc Annual Report & Accounts 2020.
Our Communities
Across the Group, we endeavour to support
our local communities in a variety of ways, including the provision of prizes
for local fundraising activities. The Group also continues to support its
chosen charity, Hope for Children www.hope-for-children.org.
Our colleagues regularly visit schools and
colleges across the country, and through these visits we hope to attract and
develop young talent, while raising awareness of the broad array of career
opportunities available at Jet2.com and Jet2holidays.
In addition, the Group has also launched
the Jet2Suite
in partnership with Leeds Beckett University, which will see students who are
studying degrees in International Tourism Management and Hospitality Business
Management receive interactive training and seminars in the classrooms.
Equal opportunities for all
We select, train, develop and promote our employees based on their ability and aptitude. The Group has a policy of treating job applicants and employees in the same way, regardless of their gender, race, ethnic origin or disability. We retain employees who become disabled during their employment whenever possible.
Jet2.com & Jet2holidays Gender Pay Gap Report 2018
Jet2.com & Jet2holidays Gender Pay Gap Report 2017