Jet2’s boss said the atrocious customer service provided at the UK’s  ‘woefully ill-prepared and poorly resourced’ airports this summer has put extra pressure on all the airline and operator’s staff.

As a result, he said they will be rewarded with an 8% pay rise and a further £1k bonus to be paid at the end of the summer.

Executive Chairman Philip Meeson said the chaos being experienced by customers at UK airports was ‘inexcusable, bearing in mind our flight have been on sale for many months are our load factors are quite normal’.

He said: “Inevitably, these customer-facing challenges have put extra pressure on our colleagues, both in the UK, onboard our aircraft and in our holiday destinations.

“This difficult return to normal operations has occurred simply because of the lack of planning, preparedness and unwillingness to invest by many airports and associated suppliers.

“As a result, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays management colleagues have worked hard to fully involve themselves in our operations and to ensure that our colleagues are supported, encouraged, rewarded and properly appreciated.”

The pay rise comes despite Jet2 announcing a £388m pre-tax loss for the financial year to the end of March 2022, a 14% increase on 2021.

The operator also acknowledged that ‘prices will likely come under pressure’ due to the cost of crisis, but it said it believes it has ‘the right product for these tougher times’.

It also said 35% of its summer 2022 bookings are from customers new to Jet2, and package holiday sales as a percentage of its overall business are up 13 percentage points.

MAG, which owns three of Jet2’s 10 UK bases – Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands – also announced a pre-tax loss today for the year to the end of March 2022 of £320m.