As rival Ryanair continues a spat with Spanish airport operators, budget airline Jet2 has launched a new base in London that will connect with 11 Spanish cities.
British budget airline Jet2.com has announced the opening of a new base at London-Gatwick airport in 2026 that will connect the UK capital with 11 Spanish airports.
“This expansion will allow Jet2.com, and its associated tour operator Jet2holidays, to consolidate its position as the leading tour operator and third largest airline in the UK,” the company said in a statement.
The new base, in addition to the 11 Spanish connections, will include 29 new routes overall. The Spanish routes will offer 465,000 seats between the major London airport and Spain alone.
READ ALSO: Will Ryanair’s cancelled flight routes to Spain be replaced by other airlines?
Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to expand our range of options from the UK to Spain and also consolidate our position as the leading tour operator between the UK and the Canaries and Balearics.”
The announcement also demonstrates Jet2’s focus on the Spanish market, which is “increasingly the company’s main focus”, it says.
Tourism website Hosteltur notes that six out of every ten Jet2.com flights this winter will be to Spain, and that the 11 Spanish routes connected to the new base in London-Gatwick will begin from the end of March 2026 in time for the summer season.
This follows a trend of budget airlines taking advantage of Ryanair’s cutbacks at Spain’s regional airports amid an ongoing war of words with the Spanish network operator, Aena, and government, over hiked airport fees, to launch new routes to Spanish airports.
For example, Iberia Express, Iberia’s short-haul subsidiary, has responded with an increase in the Canary Islands of around 30,000 seats between October 2025 and January 2026. The company is adding 116 additional flights and increasing the number of seats available.
READ ALSO: Ryanair threatens further cuts at Spanish airports for 2026 winter season
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New Jet2 Spanish airports (connected to London-Gatwick)
The new London-Gawick base will fly to the following Spanish airports:
- Fuerteventura: two flights a week (Wednesday and Sunday)
- Gran Canaria: two flights a week (Wednesday and Sunday)
- Lanzarote: two flights a week (Tuesday and Saturday)
- Tenerife-South: three flights a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday)
- Ibiza: two flights a week (Monday and Friday)
- Majorca: 10 flights a week (every day and two daily flights on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays)
- Menorca: three flights a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday)
- Alicante: five flights a week (every day except Tuesday and Wednesday)
- Málaga: four flights a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday)
- Girona: three flights a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday)
- Reus: three flights a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday)
READ ALSO: All the flight routes to Spain that Ryanair will axe by winter
