A pre-COVID normality has returned to international holidays as Jet2 boss Steve Heapy again rejected the notion that travel must adapt to a ‘new normal’.

With consumer confidence continuing to rise, the airline-operator said travel was back to how it looked ‘before everything changed’.

Mr Heapy has previously compared holidaying during COVID as resembling prison life with consumers appearing in a real-life version of The Shawshank Redemption.

“People continually talk about the new normal. Well, they don’t want a new normal they want the old normal back,” he told a conference late last year. “They don’t want, for the rest of their life, to walk round with a face mask on, or to stand two metres apart from people and sanitise their hands every 15 seconds. When they go on holiday they want to feel like they are on holiday, they want to relax, they want to do what they want, when they want.”

Mr Heapy said the old normal has returned.

“This return to normality has had an enormous impact on customer confidence with holidaymakers jumping at the chance to get away,” he said. “We have always said that things should return to the ‘old normal’ when the time was right, rather than trying to maintain a ‘new normal’ and it is great to see that this has happened.”

Latest research conducted by Jet2 and Jet2holidays found seven in 10 people now feel confident to travel overseas, up from just three in 10 in January.

Only 10% admitted they do not feel confident enough to take an international break, down sharply from 50% in January 2021.

Jet2 said the upturn is being seen across all seasons with the traditional holiday hotspots of Greece, Turkey, Mainland Spain, the Canaries, Balearic Islands, Malta and Portugal all performing well.

“We are approaching the time of year when our operation ramps up significantly, and we are looking forward to an extremely busy and successful 2022, flying millions of happy customers away on their well-deserved holidays,” My Heapy said.