Philip Meeson, chairman and chief executive of Jet2.com's parent - Dart Group has pledged continued investment in both the airline and its package holiday arm Jet2holidays.com

He said: "The key to success in the scheduled low-cost travel market will increasingly become load factor as the industry tackles both higher fuel prices and the proposed introduction of an aircraft departure tax to replace the current per passenger based Air Passenger Duty.

"With our expected fuel requirements fully hedged for the current year and with a more focused flying programme, we are well placed to improve financial performance in this financial year."

Dart Group's preliminary results for the year ended March 31 show the airline and distribution business boosted turnover by 23 per cent to £429m, driven by further expansion of the airline.

The company admitted that growth was partly at the expense of profitability as Jet2.com expanded its route network from 114 to 133 routes.

Profit before tax was £11.8m (2007: loss £3.6m.

Mr Meeson said that whilst summer 2008 trading "remains very encouraging", the board had concluded that it was not appropriate to pay a final dividend given both the current economic climate and trading performance.

Capital expenditure reduced to £38.5m (2007: £70.2m) as no further aircraft were acquired in the year. The majority of the capital expenditure related to long term maintenance spend on engines and airframes. As at March 31, 2008, the group's net debt was £17.2m (2007: £14.1m).

All of Jet2.com's expected fuel requirements for its passenger operations have been hedged for the year ending March 31, 2009.

Mr Meeson said neither Jet2.com's freight operations nor its Fowler Welch-Coolchain delivery arm currently had any material exposure to oil price risk as this was substantially covered in their commercial contracts.

Mr Meeson said Jet2.com would continue to focus its growth on the leisure sector of the airline market and the group intended to work more closely with the travel trade in making its flight and holiday offerings more accessible to all forms of distribution.

The airline operates 21 Boeing 737-300 series aircraft and eight Boeing 757-200 series aircraft from its home base at Leeds and five other northern bases.

In 2007/8 capacity was increased by 35 per cent with additional aircraft being based at Manchester and Leeds.

In the summer, 25 new city and sun routes were added, principally out of Manchester and Leeds. In the winter, additional capacity was added on existing ski routes and the airline's Canary Islands programme was expanded with services added at all six UK bases.

Revenue per passenger increased from £6.13 to £9.10 in 2007/8 with hold baggage charges being introduced on all routes from November.

Fuel supplements, variable by route length, had been introduced to reflect the additional fuel costs incurred by the business, notwithstanding its hedging activity.