A low-cost with a cult following is getting its first business class

Launched in 2003 out of the Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) in northern England, the British low-cost airline Jet2 went unexpectedly viral in the summer of 2025 over an earlier commercial for its package holidays.

The cheerful tune alongside the tagline "Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday" became a meme and voiceover that TikTok users with millions of followers started adding to footage of holidays that do not go quite right.

While the internet's use of the catchphrase draws attention to what are often major discrepancies between what low-cost airlines advertise and what they offer, its popularity helped propel Jet2 to newfound fame and a younger customer base. Throughout the second half of 2025, the airline ended up leaning fully into the trend with social media posts and a #Jet2Challenge contest asking travelers to share their funniest travel moments.

Jet2 soon to launch all-business charter flights

As a budget airline, Jet2 is not associated with luxury in that it follows the typical low-cost model of offering bare ticket prices and charging for services that are traditionally included in a mainstream airline.

But on Apr. 17, the airline announced that it will soon reconfigure one of its Boeing 737-800 planes to offer 76 armchair-style seats with extra legroom that it will bill as business class for "sports, music, entertainment, and specialist group customers" chartering flights.

Related: A budget airline is wildly popular on TikTok for actually being funny

The reconfiguration will, as first broken by Airways Magazine, take place in the coming months for chartering flights between October 2026 and May 2027. This would mark the carrier's, which has an existing fleet of 93 B737-800s, 24 A321-200NXs and seven B737-300 planes, first entry into the high-end travel market — it will bring down the plane's passenger capacity from 189 to just 76 who will have a roomier experience and some other business class perks such as in-flight catering.

"An incredibly exciting development both for Jet2 and for our charter customers"

"This is an incredibly exciting development, both for Jet2 and for our charter customers," Jet2 Head of Charter and Airline Sales Trevor Caplis said in a statement. "The bespoke configuration of one of our Boeing 737-800NG aircraft with a dedicated business-class specification is a genuine game-changer [...]. As a result of this brand-new product, our charter customers can now enjoy all the usual operational and cost-effective benefits of Jet2, but with the added benefit of a premium charter product too."

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Jet2 has not provided commentary on what it will charge for the charter flights or where they will fly — the reconfigured Boeing 737-800 will be based out of Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL) while a charter flight from the United Kingdom to nearby countries in Europe on this type of aircraft typically costs between £4,000 and £8,000 (approximately $5,500 to $11, 000 USD) per flight hour.

The limited timeframe over the coming months is also meant to serve a test for whether Jet2 has enough of a market for expanding into premium flight services. The all-business cabin mirrors what is offered by airlines such as La Compagnie and beOnd.

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