Europe’s biggest holiday company has blamed “air traffic disruptions” for another quarter of losses.
tui created 200 outbound flight cancellations in May and JuneMainly as a result of processing issues involving its ground handler, Swissport, at Manchester Airport.
Unveiling its third quarter results for the April–June spell, Tui said the disruption had resulted in €75m (£64m) of “additional costs due to irregularities, particularly in British air traffic”.
The holiday giant says that in May and June, one in 25 passengers was delayed by three hours or more. It emphasizes that flight cancellations “represent less than 1 percent of the entire summer schedule” in this period.
Without the additional costs, Tui calculated that its underlying profit would have been €48m (£41m) – its first quarterly profit since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet the average selling price for July to September holidays is one-fifth higher than pre-Covid levels, and with the number of bookings almost the same, the Anglo-German travel firm predicts it will make gains for the full year ending in September. Will earn 2022.
Tui’s summer vacation sales accounted for 90 percent of 2019 booking levels.
Outgoing Chief Executive Fritz Jausen said: “We are experiencing a strong travel summer. When I hand over the presidency to Sebastian Abel on 30 September, Tui is safe, and back on track financially and operationally. Is. “
Designated Chief Financial Officer and CEO Abel said: “Despite the operational challenges in the European tourism sector, our business performed well in the third quarter.
“People want to travel. Holidays remain at the top of the list of planned expenses – this has not changed. Although the entire European airline sector continues to face challenges, we have successfully grown our business with a significant increase in demand We have continued to address the operational challenges of the restart.
“While spending more money on their trips – mainly on longer stays and better accommodation – vacationers are also booking closer to departure.”