Tui Travel saw a 20% rise in underlying profits in an “outstanding” 12 months to September 30.
Europe’s largest tour operating group today reported an operating profit of £589 million and a pre-tax profit up by 21% to £473 million.
The underlying UK operating profit rose by 27% to £251 million with an operating margin increase to 6.5%.
Sales of higher-margin unique holidays now represent 69% of mainstream holidays. Directly distributed holidays are 66% of mainstream holidays, with online sales at 35%.
“Our investment in the digital customer service proposition and our online platform is delivering clear benefits to our customers,” the company said.
Chief executive Peter Long (pictured) said: “The year has been outstanding and highlights that our strategy of delivering unique holidays sold directly to our customers is the right one.
“We have once again reported record underlying profits across the business, significantly exceeding the top end of our growth roadmap target of 10%. This follows strong margins across the peak Summer period, particularly in the UK and accelerated business improvement delivery.”
He added: “Tui Travel is structurally well positioned with a robust business model that gives us a long term competitive advantage.
“The business continues to deliver sustainable growth through our unique holiday experiences, increasingly distributed online, whilst leveraging its scale as one organisation. This in turn, will drive further value for both our customers and shareholders.
“Building on this year’s outperformance where we have achieved a 13% underlying operating profit growth, I remain confident that we will deliver consistently on our five year annualised growth target of between 7% to 10% at constant currency.”
Tui reported record levels of customer satisfaction, up two percentage points to 79% across all key markets.