TUI Travel says performance to meet expectations

Thursday, 5th February 2009

Even in the difficult trading environment since late November and expectations of bookings being flat, Europe’s largest travel operator has said: "we are achieving our load factor and margin targets due to our ongoing management of capacity, and we expect this to continue through the summer season."

Average charter holiday selling prices in the UK for the winter rose by 10 per cent compared with last winter, but customer numbers were down by 12 per cent. Margins remained steady over the two winter seasons.

The pound weakened against both the euro and the dollar, leading to an increase in demand for holiday destinations such as Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Egypt.

Excluding the UK, TUI Travel anticipates weaker demand for travel this summer and has cut capacity, increasing average prices to levels that are "significantly ahead of last year."

During the winter the demand for all-inclusive holidays was up significantly over the previous year. Load factors for the winter were two points lower, however, down to 31 per cent.

TUI shares have declined by 3.9 per cent since the beginning of 2009, closing on Wednesday at 225p.

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