Jet2holidays was founded in June 2007. Upon launch, Jet2holidays provided package holidays from Jet2.com's six bases in
Leeds,
Manchester,
Belfast,
Newcastle,
Blackpool and
Edinburgh. It began operations at
East Midlands Airport in May 2010 and announced an expansion to
Glasgow Airport later that year. In 2014,
Blackpool Airport closed, taking the company back down to seven bases. By March 2015, Jet2holidays was providing package holidays to one million customers per year. The following month, it created Jet2CityBreaks, a subsidiary specialising in shorter holidays to its city destinations. In April 2017, Jet2holidays became available from nine bases after the company announced an expansion to
Birmingham Airport and
London Stansted Airport. On 7 June 2017, Jet2holidays launched Jet2Villas, expanding its portfolio of self-catered package holidays. Later that month, it celebrated ten years of operation, and had sold more than seven million package holidays. In October 2017, when
Monarch Airlines ceased operations, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays added more than 650,000 seats from former Monarch airports, leading to Jet2holidays overtaking
Thomas Cook Tour Operations to become the second-largest tour operator in the UK. In December 2018, Jet2holidays fought a false compensation claim from two holidaymakers who travelled to
Marmaris, Turkey, which resulted in the couple being forced to pay the company £30,000 in damages. In February 2023, Jet2holidays added an extra 500,000 to its operating licence making it the largest tour operator in the UK. This now means it overtakes
TUI UK as it will carry 5.8 million passengers in 2023. It was also parodied by the American
White House official Twitter account using the soundtrack of the Jet2 advert over footage
American Immigration agents deporting migrants, which itself received criticism. ==Operations==