UK continues to ‘outperform’ at TUI
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UK holiday sales at TUI have continued to ‘outperform’ the market with strong lates margins and load factors, the group said today.
In its third quarter results, the travel giant said it had seen “very encouraging trading” for summer 2012 with less left to sell compared to Q3 2011. Its underlying profits dropped £74 million from £88m due to the timing of Easter, which included results in Q2 instead of Q3.
Its current trading showed a 5% drop in customers but 4% increase in sales for the UK market although bookings were flat in line with capacity.
In the UK market its differentiated product continued to lead demand, with bookings up 7% in the quarter totalling 63% of bookings. Its cashflow has improved by £52m year-on-year, with the company encouraged by winter 2012/13 trading.
Peter Long, chief executive of TUI Travel said he was pleased with the development of trading since its last update and said TUI was on the right strategy for long term growth.
“We are pleased with our performance, driven by our strategy of differentiated and exclusive product with a focus on online distribution. We are significantly outperforming the market in the UK,” he added. “We are confident of exceeding our full year expectations based on like for like exchange rates, however, the impact of retranslation of fourth quarter eurozone profits at current exchange rates leaves us to believe we will perform in line with our expectations for the full-year.”
