Tui Travel expects full-year profits to rise by between 7%-10% despite an increase in winter losses.
The Thomson and First Choice parent saw traditional pre-tax losses for the six months to March 31 deepen by 5% to £369 million.
Tui said it was pleased with its winter performance in the UK, with underlying operating losses in line with the previous year excluding the timing impact of Easter, despite lower demand for Egypt.
The group saw “continued momentum” in the sale of unique holidays, increasingly booked online.
The summer programme is 60% sold, with higher average selling prices across mainstream holidays offsetting a “slight decrease” in overall volumes against strong comparatives in 2013.
The proportion of unique holidays has gone up from 67% to 70% in the half year while overall online bookings accounted for 38% of sales against 34% in the same period last year.
Online sales from the UK account for 47% of summer 2014 holidays booked, up four percentage points on last year.
Summer bookings in the UK are down 3% year on year when the group saw a “very strong” start to early trading.
Selected capacity increases have been made in unique holidays in destinations such as Greece, Ibiza and Lanzarote, in line with demand.
Average summer selling prices from the UK are up by 5%, with sales of unique holidays accounting for 85% of holidays sold to date, up by three percentage points.
Chief executive Peter Long said: “We have delivered a strong performance in the first half, driven by our flexible and resilient business model.
“Demand continues to grow for our unique holidays and we have seen strong growth in online bookings, a key element of our digital transformation.
“The UK is delivering excellent performance due to market leadership and uniqueness of offering.
“We are particularly pleased with the result in Germany, where we are making significant headway in improving operating margin and are on a similar journey to that of the UK.
“In France the turnaround plan to break even is making good progress.
“Our global leadership position in accommodation wholesaler is also delivering strong growth.
“Overall, we are pleased with summer 2014 trading, against strong comparatives, and we remain confident of delivering 7% to 10% growth in underlying operating profit during the year on a constant currency basis.”