Jet2 is preparing to operate its first winter season from London Gatwick, with 13 newly announced routes planned for Winter 2026/27.
The expansion gives passengers using the airport a wider mix of winter-sun, city-break, festive and ski options. The destinations newly listed from Gatwick are Agadir, Funchal, Tallinn, Vienna, Cologne, Gdansk, Grenoble, Turin, Geneva, Salzburg, Chambery, Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada.
It is a sizeable step for the airline at Gatwick. Rather than adding one type of short break, the proposed programme stretches from North African sunshine to European cities and gateways for the Alps. That matters for travellers in London and the South East who prefer to depart from Gatwick but want a choice of holiday styles outside the main summer season.
A broader winter choice from Gatwick
Agadir, Funchal, Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada sit within the winter-sun side of the new line-up. For those looking towards city breaks and festive travel, Tallinn, Vienna, Cologne and Gdansk have been added. Grenoble, Turin, Geneva, Salzburg and Chambery are among the new points aimed at people travelling on to ski areas.
The list also includes a broad geographical spread. Funchal offers a route to Madeira, while Agadir is in Morocco. Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada add Egyptian Red Sea options, and the new European destinations include places in Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy and Poland.
Gatwick’s role in the announcement is particularly notable because this is described as Jet2’s first winter season from the airport. The carrier already serves a large holiday market from London and the surrounding region, but a winter programme creates a different pattern of demand from the better-known summer beach schedule. It can give passengers an alternative to travelling to another London airport or changing their usual departure point for a particular kind of trip.
For passengers, the practical attraction is the range rather than a single headline destination. A traveller looking for a few days in a European city has different needs from a family seeking warmth, while a ski break often depends on reaching a suitable airport at the right time. Bringing all three categories into one winter launch from Gatwick broadens the airport’s holiday offering without requiring travellers to start their journey elsewhere.
Part of a UK-wide expansion
The Gatwick additions form part of a wider Winter 2026/27 expansion in which Jet2 has put 34 new routes on sale across its UK airport bases. The company also announced three new destinations across that programme.
Across the whole winter network, rather than Gatwick alone, Jet2 says it has 6.3 million seats on sale to 42 destinations. That is more than half a million additional seats compared with Winter 2025/26 and represents an 8.7% increase in capacity, according to the airline.
Those figures are useful context, but they should not be read as a measure of Gatwick capacity by itself. The announcement does not set out a Gatwick-only seat total, nor does it give individual flight times, start dates or weekly frequencies for the 13 routes. Travellers considering one of the services will therefore need to check the specific schedule and availability for their preferred destination before making plans.
The overall shape of the programme reflects the way winter holidays have become less confined to one market. Some passengers seek reliable warmth, others build a short break around a seasonal event, and many use winter flights to reach the mountains. The Gatwick list addresses each of those groups, from beach and pool destinations to old-city breaks and Alpine connections.
It also gives the airport a more varied winter leisure timetable. Routes to Morocco, Madeira and Egypt sit alongside continental European cities and ski gateways, creating options for different trip lengths and budgets. The new services are planned for Winter 2026/27, so the development is an announcement of the forthcoming programme rather than flights that have already started operating.
For Gatwick users, the immediate development is straightforward: Jet2 is moving into its first winter from the airport with 13 new routes, making the forthcoming season a more substantial part of the carrier’s presence in the London market.
