A West Yorkshire package holiday operator has seen a surge in bookings for the forthcoming May Bank Holiday, compared with last year.

Jet2holidays said more than 32,000 sunseekers will fly to European beach destinations over the long weekend, with nearly a quarter of them flying out of Leeds Bradford Airport – a 23 per cent increase on last year’s figures.

More then 25 per cent of tourists are going to the Balearic Islands, while the Canary Islands remains popular. The top five destinations for the late May bank holiday weekend are Majorca, Alicante, Tenerife, Ibiza and Faro ( Portugal).

Jet2holidays also saw a big increase in passenger numbers over the May Day weekend with more than 10,000 people travelling with the company - a 28 per cent increase on 2013.

Steve Heapy, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays chief executive, said: “This is going to be our busiest late May bank holiday weekend getaway yet from Leeds Bradford.

“It’s clear that our customers are in search of one thing – sunshine! The traditional destinations in Spain remain the most popular and each year we are seeing a rise in passengers heading there at this time of year.”

Meanwhile, Jet2.com, which is developing a flight crew training centre in Bradford, has added Verona in Italy to its route network from Leeds Bradford .

Tony Hallwood, LBA aviation development and marketing director, said: “It is a pleasure to launch new services to Verona with Jet2.com, a welcome addition to the airline’s extensive European route network available from Leeds Bradford Airport.”

Services to Verona depart each Wednesday, leaving at 1400, and landing at 1715. Return flights leave Verona at 1755 each Wednesday, arriving back at Leeds Bradford at 1910.

Verona is one of Jet2.com’s five new destinations available from the Yeadon hub this summer, including new services to Kos, Fuerteventura, Budapest and Reus.

l Budget airline Ryanair, which has an operational base at Leeds Bradford, said customer service was improving "rapidly" as it looks to recover from its first drop in annual profits in five years.

Post-tax profits were eight per cent lower at £426.5 million in the year to March 31, after a price war left average fares four per cent lower at a time of rising fuel costs.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary described the performance as disappointing but said efforts since September to reinvent Ryanair's image and reputation helped passenger traffic rise four per cent in the second half of the year.

It has also seen better booking trends and fuller planes in the current year.

The company expects to fly 84.6 million passengers in the year to March 31, a four per cent rise on a year earlier, although it remains "very cautious" about booking trends for the winter period.