Tui narrows losses as travel recovery continues

Holiday giant Tui on Wednesday reported narrower losses and an increase in revenue as travel rebounded from the Covid pandemic.

Second quarter underlying losses before interest and tax came in at €242.4m, compared with €330m loss a year ago at a time when fewer people holiday during the colder months.

Group revenue surged to €3.2bn, up from €2.1bn in 2002 “reflecting the strength of demand for our products in a restriction free travel environment” with sales above pre-pandemic levels at improved prices, Tui said.

Bookings were up 13% year on year and had hit 96% of pre-Covid 2019 levels, with average prices for summer trips up 5% over last year.

"Strong booking development and significantly improved quarterly figures underline our expectations: it will be a strong summer and a good financial year 2023 with a significantly higher operating result," said chief executive Sebastian Ebel.

TUI has invested a "double-digit million" amount to increase its resilience in the face of strikes that hit summer bookings last year, Ebel told journalists, with more focus put on standby aircrafts. There are fears that growing unrest in France, where workers are protesting pension changes, particularly by air traffic controllers, will cause more chaos.

He added that "it's annoying because our numbers would've been better" if the company had not had to invest in such measures.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com