Jet2 CEO Steve Heapy has sent a message to all customers after the easing of coronavirus restrictions in England on July 19.
The airline currently offers flights and package holidays to more than 40 quarantine free destinations.
It has been a turbulent 18 months for the travel industry and many restrictions and regulations are still in place across the world.
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Rules and restrictions are also continuously changing due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The UK marked what was dubbed ‘Freedom Day’ on Monday, July 19, which saw an end to Covid-19 restrictions that had been put in place.
Now many holidaymakers will be filled with excitement at the prospect of being able to travel to some of their favourite holiday destinations.
In a message sent to all customers this morning, Jet2's CEO said:
"Dear Valued Customer,
"Thank you for choosing Jet2holidays. We know how much your holidays mean, particularly in the current climate, and we cannot wait to take you away.
"This week marks the relaxation of quarantine rules for fully vaccinated customers, which means a major step up in our Summer programme. On Monday 19th July we commenced flying, taking more and more customers to over 40 quarantine free destinations, which is fantastic news.
"Despite this, we continue to operate in an unprecedented time for travel. Although it is 18 months since the onset of the pandemic, we are still navigating a range of varied and changing travel restrictions from UK and overseas governments. Many of these restrictions come with little or no notice, meaning we are making decisions very quickly and without any warning. When we make these decisions, we always do so with the best interests of our valued customers in mind.
"We also know how much these new regulations and restrictions affect our customers. Understanding matters such as changing travel requirements, passenger locator forms, testing requirements and traffic light systems, to name just a few, is not something customers have had to deal with before.
"These are new and complex matters, but in line with our industry-leading customer service, our teams are continuing to work flat out to help our customers understand these regulations and requirements. Whether in our call centres, in resorts, in airports, or on social media, our teams are doing everything they can to help and support our customers whenever they need it.
"However, at present, there are an unprecedented number of customers wanting to speak to us to discuss their most important purchase of the year, their holiday. We understand that our customers may have a number of things they would like to speak to us about and we also understand that they want and deserve to feel assured.
"Providing this assurance is why our award-winning teams are working tirelessly to help. We have responded positively to the anticipated increase in enquiries and brought more colleagues into our fully staffed, homeworking call centres and social media teams, from different areas of our business, including head office colleagues, pilots and cabin crew. However, even with the significant numbers of extra colleagues, the unprecedented call volumes have resulted in our response times being slower than what we and our customers expect. We pride ourselves on delivering the very best customer service, so this is something that we take very seriously.
"As such, I have had to make the difficult decision to prioritise all calls by departure date, so that we can deal with all our customers’ enquiries fairly and comprehensively. I therefore, politely request, that customers do not contact us if they are not due to travel in the next 21 days. This will help us to prioritise customers who are due to travel more imminently and will enable us to deliver the customer service that we are famous for. Please be assured that if there are any changes to your booking, or the government guidelines change, we will contact you prior to travel.
"I understand that this is not an ideal situation and am hopeful that this will only be for a short period, whilst we are waiting for more clarity from the government. All travel companies are in the same position, however I wanted to explain the situation and thank you for your patience and understanding during this difficult period.
"In the meantime, we have lots of helpful information on our website which customers can find here .
"If customers are thinking of changing or cancelling a booking, they can also take a look at our Traffic Light Update here . Finally, customers can also view our Changes and Refunds Policy here .
"We have received a huge amount of praise for our handling of the pandemic and I am very proud and grateful to our teams for working tirelessly over the last 18 months.
"Despite the challenges that ever-changing travel restrictions continue to throw up, I wanted to share this update with our valued customers, so that they can understand we are doing everything we can and see just how committed we are to delivering our usual standard of VIP customer service. I know how hard our teams are working to make sure that this is the case.
"In the meantime, I would like to sincerely thank every single customer for their understanding and patience."
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