Jet2 vs easyJet 2026: Is the Free Cabin Bag Worth It?

Jet2 and easyJet used to avoid each other. easyJet owned the South of England and the city-break market; Jet2 owned the North and the package-holiday beach run. For summer 2026 that truce is over: Gatwick became Jet2’s 14th UK base, with 29 routes and a fleet of new Airbus A321neos parked on easyJet’s busiest turf. For the first time, millions of southern travelers get to pick between them on the same routes.

The short version: Jet2 is the better airline, easyJet is often the better deal. Every Jet2 fare includes a 10 kg cabin bag plus an under-seat bag, while easyJet sells the overhead bag separately. Jet2 cancelled 0.12 percent of flights in the year to April 2025 against easyJet’s 1.05 percent (UK CAA data), and it topped the Which? 2026 short-haul survey as the only UK airline rated a Recommended Provider, its eleventh straight year. easyJet counters with lower hand-luggage-only fares, a network roughly twice the size, year-round frequency, and a stronger city-break product. If you are packing a bag for a week in the sun, Jet2 usually wins the total-cost math. If you are going to Amsterdam for two nights with a backpack, easyJet does.

What We Looked For

UK leisure routes are where these two overlap, so we weighted the comparison for how Britons actually fly them: a family beach holiday or a short hop with a bag. Here is what mattered:

• What the base fare includes, because easyJet’s headline price and its price with a cabin bag are different numbers
• Cancellation rates and punctuality, which the UK CAA publishes and which separate these two sharply
• Network shape, not just size: where each airline actually flies from, and in which months
• Package holiday quality, since both airlines sell more holidays than seat-only tickets on leisure routes
• Independent satisfaction data, mainly the Which? annual survey of UK flyers
• Gate and sizer enforcement, the hidden cost of a borderline bag

We weighted included baggage and reliability heaviest. On a leisure route, those two decide whether the trip starts calm or chaotic.

Can you bring a free cabin bag on Jet2 or easyJet?

On Jet2, yes: a 10 kg overhead bag is included on every fare. On easyJet, only an under-seat bag is free; the overhead bag costs extra.

This is the single clearest difference between the two airlines, and it is worth spelling out because the bags in question are the same size.

What is free on every fare:

• Jet2: one 56 x 45 x 25 cm bag up to 10 kg in the overhead locker, plus a 40 x 30 x 20 cm under-seat bag
• easyJet: one 45 x 36 x 20 cm under-seat bag up to 15 kg, and nothing in the overhead locker

Getting the overhead bag on easyJet: the large cabin bag (56 x 45 x 25 cm, up to 15 kg) requires a paid add-on, typically £5 to £25 depending on route and timing, or comes bundled with FLEXI fares and easyJet Plus membership. Up Front and Extra Legroom seats stopped including it in June 2023, a change that still catches people out.

Gate fees if you get it wrong:

• Jet2: extra or oversized hand baggage is £45 / €55 at the airport or gate, and cannot be paid for online
• easyJet: an unpaid large bag at the gate goes into the hold for up to £48

One Jet2 caveat: hand luggage is carried in the cabin at Jet2’s discretion, and on full flights some bags get hold-stowed free of charge. You get the bag back on the belt, but if that bothers you, Jet2 sells a Guaranteed Cabin Luggage add-on. easyJet plays the same game in reverse: pay for the large bag and it is guaranteed in the cabin.

Checked luggage is a wash. Neither includes a hold bag on any standard fare. Jet2 sells 22 kg bags at destination-dependent prices; easyJet sells 15 kg and 23 kg bags from roughly £7 to £40 online, more at the airport. Both punish airport purchases, so book bags online before you fly.

Winner: free cabin bag

Jet2 / 10 kg overhead bag included; easyJet charges for it

Winner: under-seat bag

easyJet / 45 x 36 x 20 cm beats 40 x 30 x 20 cm

Winner: checked bags

Tie / neither includes one; both charge per bag

Is Jet2 or easyJet more reliable?

Jet2 cancels about one flight in 800. easyJet cancels about one in 95. Punctuality is a tie.

UK CAA data for the year to April 2025, as analyzed by Which?:

• Jet2: roughly 68 percent of flights on time, 0.12 percent cancelled
• easyJet: roughly 67.8 percent of flights on time, 1.05 percent cancelled

On-time performance is statistically identical, and honestly neither number is impressive; UK short-haul punctuality has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels industry-wide. The cancellation gap is the real story. easyJet cancelled flights at roughly eight times Jet2’s rate over the same twelve months. For a once-a-year holiday booked months ahead, that difference matters more than ten minutes of average delay.

The Which? survey adds texture to the same picture: 92 percent of Jet2 passengers said staff were available during disruption. Jet2’s operational style is famously conservative, and it shows up in the numbers year after year.

Both are UK carriers, so a cancellation at short notice or a delay over three hours can trigger UK261 compensation of £220 to £520 depending on distance, regardless of which airline you picked.

Winner: cancellations

Jet2 / 0.12% vs 1.05%, roughly 8x lower

Winner: punctuality

Tie / ~68% vs ~67.8% (UK CAA)

Winner: staff during disruption

Jet2 / 92% of passengers reported staff available (Which?)

Does Jet2 or easyJet fly to more places?

easyJet, by roughly two to one. Jet2’s network is a leisure map; easyJet’s is a leisure map plus a city-break map.

• Jet2: around 80 destinations in 24 countries, flown from 14 UK bases. The network is concentrated on sun routes: Spain, the Canaries, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Cyprus, plus ski and a handful of city breaks. Many routes are summer-seasonal.
• easyJet: 158 to 180 destinations from 23 bases across the UK and Europe, flying year-round on most trunk routes, with deep city-break coverage (Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Geneva, Milan) that Jet2 barely touches.

The shape matters as much as the count. Jet2’s bases skew north: Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Bristol, and now Gatwick. From northern England and Scotland, Jet2 often has the most convenient departure and the only direct flight to a given Greek island. easyJet dominates the South (Gatwick, Luton, Bristol, Southampton) and continental Europe, where Jet2 has no bases at all.

The Gatwick launch narrows the gap for southern travelers but does not close it: 29 Jet2 routes against the several hundred easyJet flies from the same airport. If your trip is a beach week between May and October, both will likely fly it. If it is a February city break or a route between two European cities, easyJet is probably your only option of the two.

Winner: total destinations

easyJet / 158+ vs ~80

Winner: year-round and city-break routes

easyJet

Winner: northern UK departures

Jet2 / more bases, more direct leisure routes

Are Jet2 or easyJet package holidays better?

Jet2holidays is the UK’s biggest tour operator and a Which? Recommended Provider. easyJet holidays is smaller but sharp on city breaks.

Most people on these planes did not book a flight; they booked a holiday. Jet2holidays packages include 22 kg of checked luggage, 10 kg hand luggage, and resort transfers as standard, and the operation holds Which? Recommended Provider status alongside the airline. It overtook TUI as the UK’s largest tour operator, and the customer-service reputation that tops the airline survey extends to the holiday side.

easyJet holidays is the younger, leaner operation: typically 23 kg luggage included, often aggressive pricing, and a particular strength in short city stays where easyJet’s network and frequency do the heavy lifting. It is a genuinely good product; it is just competing with the category leader.

For a family all-inclusive in Majorca, Jet2holidays is the safer default. For two nights in Prague, easyJet holidays usually wins on price and schedule.

Winner: beach package holidays

Jet2 / Which? Recommended Provider, transfers included

Winner: city breaks

easyJet / network and frequency advantage

What about loyalty programs and extras?

Neither airline runs a points-earning loyalty program, which is itself worth knowing if you are used to Avios. easyJet sells easyJet Plus, an annual membership that bundles the large cabin bag, seat selection, and fast track on every flight; it pays off for frequent flyers. Jet2’s myJet2 account is a preferences profile, not a rewards scheme, and its equivalent spend is the Guaranteed Cabin Luggage and extra-legroom add-ons bought per trip.

On board, Jet2 flies a mix of older 737s and new A321neos (the Gatwick fleet is all-new, with bigger Airspace bins), while easyJet flies an all-Airbus fleet of mixed ages. Seat pitch on both is standard short-haul tight. Neither has seatback screens. Buy-on-board menus are comparable. Comfort is a tie, with the nod going to whichever airline puts you on its newest aircraft.

Who Should Pick Jet2

• You are taking a beach or package holiday and want the 10 kg cabin bag included instead of bolted on
• Your trip is booked months out and a cancellation would wreck it; 0.12 percent versus 1.05 percent is the widest reliability gap in UK short-haul
• You fly from the North or Midlands (Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow), where Jet2 has the most departures
• You are booking a package: Jet2holidays includes 22 kg bags and transfers and holds Which? Recommended Provider status
• You value staffed, human customer service when things go wrong, the thing Which? respondents rate Jet2 highest on
• You are flying the new Gatwick routes and want the all-new A321neo cabin

Who Should Pick easyJet

• You are traveling hand-luggage-only and the under-seat bag is genuinely enough; easyJet’s base fare will usually be lower
• Your destination is a city break or any route Jet2 does not fly, which is most of Europe
• You need to fly in February, or midweek, or at a specific time: easyJet’s frequency and year-round schedule are far deeper
• You fly often enough that easyJet Plus membership turns the cabin bag and fast track into a flat annual cost
• You are starting from continental Europe, where Jet2 has no bases
• You want the cheapest possible two-night city stay via easyJet holidays

The Bottom Line

For the classic UK leisure trip, a week somewhere warm with an actual bag, Jet2 is the better airline by a comfortable margin. The included 10 kg cabin bag erases easyJet’s headline fare advantage the moment you price like-for-like, the cancellation record is in a different league, and eleven consecutive years as Which?’s only UK Recommended Provider airline is not an accident. The 2026 Gatwick launch means southern England finally gets to access it without a drive north.

easyJet remains the right answer surprisingly often anyway. It flies twice as many places, it flies them all year, and for a backpack-only traveler its fares are hard to beat. Its holidays arm is excellent for short stays. The honest framing is not “good airline versus bad airline,” it is a specialist versus a generalist: Jet2 does one kind of trip exceptionally well, easyJet does every kind of trip adequately.

The screenshot version: bag and a beach, book Jet2. Backpack and a city, book easyJet. If both fly your route on your dates, price the easyJet fare with the large cabin bag added before you compare, because that is the fare you would actually pay. For how Jet2 stacks up against the other big UK leisure names, see Jet2 vs Ryanair and Jet2 vs TUI Airways.