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TUI Travel is seeing holiday demand improving across all its source markets, with sustained improvements in booking volumes over the last three to four months.

Published: 10 Feb 2010

TUI Travel is seeing holiday demand improving across all its source markets, with sustained improvements in booking volumes over the last three to four months.

The group shared that pricing remains robust and it is currently recovering input cost inflation in the remainder of the winter season and for the forthcoming summer season.

TUI Travel has chosen to increase the number of holidays it has to sell for the first time in at least three years.

The group has increased the number of summer holidays on offer to customers in the UK and the Nordic region in order to meet stronger demand. The group shared that since its last trading update, customer bookings in the Nordics and the UK are up 40 percent and 6 percent respectively.

Positive momentum

TUI Travel expects positive momentum in each of the remaining quarters of 2010.

Peter Long, chief executive of TUI Travel, said, “Our flexible business model allowed us to manage the impact of the first full winter season since the height of the economic downturn by ensuring demand was in line with profitable supply.”

He added that sustained improvements in demand over a number of months “leave us more confident that the worst is behind us”.

“I expect positive momentum in each of the remaining quarters of 2010 as trading benefits from improved demand in all source markets, merger synergies are delivered, and the benefits of our strategic venture in Canada and our exit from scheduled flying in Germany are realised,” Long said.

TUI Travel posted an operating loss of £107 million for the three months to December 31, compared with a loss of £35 million a year earlier, while revenue fell 8 percent to £ 2.53 billion as capacity fell 14 percent.

Pretax loss expanded from £166 million for the three month period from £89 million loss last year.