Dart Group history

Art Carpenter joins forces with Guernsey exporters to create Express Air Freight. The famous Douglas DC3 helped to fly produce, flowers and freight between the Channel Islands and the UK.

Art Carpenter forms Express Air Services to take over the cargo aircraft operation from Express Air Freight.

Philip Meeson, an expert pilot who trained in the Royal Air Force and a five-time British Aerobatics Champion, purchases the 'Express' companies. We get a great new name too - “Channel Express”.

Channel Express secures overnight parcel contracts with TNT. We acquire our third Handley Page Dart Herald to carry time-sensitive airfreight between Birmingham, Nuremburg and Hanover.

Channel Express delivers for express parcel carriers, the Guernsey Post Office, Royal Mail and newspaper publishers. It's 'super' news all round, as we expand our 'Super' Dart Herald aircraft fleet too. The Group also expands its consolidation centres in both the Channel Islands and the UK.

Channel Express (Air Services) purchases the first of five Lockheed L-188 Electra freighter aircraft. Capable of carrying a 15 tonne payload, it can be loaded in 25 minutes and flies at 330 knots. We set off for pastures new, flying to key European routes for UPS, TNT and DHL.

Channel Express Group PLC gets a great new name “Dart Group PLC.” The name honours the Rolls-Royce Dart engines that are so invaluable to the Group's forays into the air. Dart Group PLC moves to the Official List of the London Stock Exchange. The company’s shareholders take up a further 2.75 million ordinary shares to raise funds for expansion, with 15.25 million ordinary shares now in issue.

Dart Group PLC acquires Fowler Welch Ltd, a temperature-controlled distribution company. It becomes a major asset, making important deliveries to top supermarkets every day. We also gain BS5750 Quality Assurance accreditation, which proves our systems are working to serve customers, shareholders and stakeholders.

Dart Group PLC purchases the Airbus A300-B4, a 257 passenger aircraft that was the world's first twin-engine widebody jet airliner. We convert ours into freighters with a mighty moniker the Eurofreighter. Fowler Welch also adds a new warehouse at its Spalding headquarters, as well as a lovely new logo and livery.

Channel Express is called upon by the major delivery providers UPS and DHL. We’re also awarded Type Rating Training Organisation (TRTO) approval by the CAA and Joint Airworthiness Requirements (JAR 145) .

Dart Group PLC darts upwards in size as it now has 1,500 colleagues across its companies. We’re a major player for freight, distribution and delivery. Coolchain welcomes the new millennium by reaching a three-year agreement with the Canary Island’s Federation of Produce Growers. It also buys A. Wood & Son (Detling), a former local competitor.

Jet2.com, the leading low cost leisure airline, is launched! After the success of our chartered service, we announce that the first Jet2.com flight will take off in February 2003. Dart Group PLC purchases a further eight Boeing 737-300QCs. We also purchase a fourth Airbus A300-B4 for cargo. Jet2.com opens for business on 11th December 2002. It sells 12,000 seats online within the first 24 hours!

Jet2.com flies its 500,000th passenger in March 2004, then welcomes its one millionth passenger in September 2004. Already aiming to expand, we’re on course to begin flights from both Belfast and Manchester airports. Our air deliveries are still going strong, as Channel Express secures a long-term contract to be the leading aircraft provider of the Royal Mail.

Channel Express (Air Services) Limited changes its name to the catchier Jet2.com Limited - over five million passengers have now flown with the airline. To meet this extra demand, we buy ourselves six more Boeing 757-200 aircraft. Fowler Welch-Coolchain buys local competitor R.F. Fielding Cheshire Ltd and Dart Group PLC splits its shares by 4 for 1, so there are now 134 million ordinary shares in issue.

Jet2.com announces it flew more than 4 million passengers in a single year. It’s a great way to mark the airline’s fifth anniversary, in a year that also sees us introduce the myJet2 loyalty scheme. Fowler Welch-Coolchain makes several sprightly upgrades to its operations, including the complete redesign of its Paddock Wood warehouse facility. Dart Group PLC wins the ‘Enterprise IT Solution of the Year’ at the Channel Network Awards, beating Selfridges and Coca Cola in the process.

Fowler Welch-Coolchain expands its business even further, purchasing a 500,000 sq. ft ambient distribution centre at Heywood, Greater Manchester. Meanwhile, Jet2.com welcomes its 20 millionth customer onboard. We also take ‘pride’ in safely flying 13 lions from a Romanian zoo to a new 10-acre enclosure in Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Later, Jet2.com launches at Glasgow Airport.

Jet2.com has a winning start to the year by scooping ‘Best Short Haul Airline’ at the Travel Weekly Globe Travel Awards, beating bmi, British Airways, easyJet, Iberia and Lufthansa. Jet2holidays celebrates five years since its launch, with passenger numbers increasing by a whopping 500 percent. We also launch ‘Take Me There’, a training programme to ensure Jet2.com and Jet2holidays colleagues have the know-how to create an even better experience for our customers.

Jet2.com makes a swift return to winning ways by scooping the ‘Best Short Haul Airline’ for the third year in a row at the Globe Travel Awards 2014. We see the launch of our spectacular £9.5 million state-of-the-art Training Centre in Yorkshire, complete with three flight simulators. we roll out our new mobile responsive Jet2holidays website.

At Jet2holidays, we notch up 1.2 million customers in a single financial year and we now employ over 5,000 colleagues across the UK and overseas.
There’s also BIG news for Jet2.com, as we’re delighted to launch the sale of flights from our 8th and 9th bases, Birmingham and London Stansted, we open our new 6,000 square metre Manchester Hangar and, on 15 September 2016, our first brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft comes home.
Jet2.com is proud to be ranked the UK’s top airline on TripAdvisor and the UK’s Most Loved Airline on Skytrax.

Jet2holidays wins Best Short Haul Operator for the second year running at the Globe Travel Awards. We also win Best Trade Friendly Brand, and are voted by customers as Favourite Short Haul Operator. Jet2.com scoops Best Short Haul Airline for the fifth time in seven years.
The airline has more to celebrate on 12 February, as it marks 15 years of flying. Over 60 million customers have enjoyed our friendly low fares since our first flight back in 2003.
Our industry recognition continues as Jet2.com wins Best Airline – UK and Best Low-Cost Airline – Europe for the second year running at the TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards, and also wins Best Economy Class – Europe. Our reviews on TripAdvisor make us 7th in the Top 10 Airlines of the World too. Meanwhile, Jet2.com & Jet2holidays are awarded Travel Brand of the Year 2018 at the Which? Awards.

In early 2020, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays faced the biggest, most unprecedented scenario in its history. The rapid global spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) forced border closures and lockdowns that brought the world to a standstill. The travel industry has been one of the worst affected.
Despite us cancelling flights and holidays, we’ve been praised by trustworthy review sites for our customer-first approach. We’ve been recognised as the best airline and tour operator in the UK for how we’ve treated our valued customers throughout the wake of the pandemic. Furthermore, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) acknowledged Jet2.com as the only UK airline to process and provide COVID-19 refunds promptly and without significant backlogs! We’re particularly proud of this.
Our Work As One Team ethos saw colleagues from around the business fielding thousands of enquiries across the Contact Centre and our social media platforms, to coherently communicate with, reassure and even repatriate our customers.