Tui chief Fritz Joussen believes the company’s successful restart shows the advantage of an integrated travel business.
The Tui Group resumed taking customers on holiday from Germany in June, operating to Majorca and Portugal.
Speaking on a third-quarter results call this week, Joussen said: “We started in June with 61 flights. In July we had 2,300 flights. In August, we will operate 4,200 flights. We assume we’ll operate 30% of our summer programme.”
The company reported carrying 563,000 passengers in July, at an average load factor of 89%.
Tui also resumed limited cruise operations in July, operating short North Sea cruises from Germany with capacity limited to 60% and no disembarkation.
Joussen insisted: “The integrated business model allowed us to restart first and to take already 560,000 customers. It shows we can make integrated decisions from marketing through to delivery.”
He said Tui had been able to react quickly to changing travel restrictions and foreign office advice, such as the UK government’s advice against travel to Spain, saying: “Even with all the changes, we have restarted operations.
“If you are independent in the value chain, it is much more difficult to handle these changes. The integrated model is the best. We can say, if you want to go to Greece, you can go.”
He said: “Turkey opened from Germany just a week ago. No one knows when Egypt will open.
“Changes will be part of our business, [but] this is not problematic for our business. It may be problematic for customers. It is not very customer friendly, but it is not problematic for our business.”
Joussen acknowledged: “A total lockdown would be problematic.”
But he added: “The integrated model also allows us to drive through our digital-first strategy much faster. We do what we wanted to do anyhow, but faster.”
He was speaking as Tui reported a loss of €1.45 billion for the three months to June and almost €2.3 billion for the nine months to June.