Pre-tax profits at Tui Travel rose by 3% to £475 million in the year to September with the company also reporting strong summer 2015 trading.
The group’s mainstream holiday division saw underlying profits rise by 13% to £581 million, driven by strong performances in the UK, Germany and Holland and a halving of French tour operator losses.
The number of unique holidays offered now stands at 71% with online sales at 38% and directly distributed holidays at 68%.
A total of 63% of the winter 2014/15 programme has been sold with mainstream bookings and selling prices up by 1%.
Strong trading in UK continues across both seasons with bookings up 4% for winter – 53% sold – and 9% for next summer – 22% sold, the company said.
The merger of Tui Travel and German parent Tui AG will see combined group shares listed on the London Stock Exchange on December 17 – a week later than originally planned due to “technical issues”.
The merged business will comprise of six airlines with 140 aircraft, more than 300 hotels with 210,000 beds, 12 cruise ships and 77,000 employees.
“Unlike most of our competitors, we have the added advantage of owning the entire customer experience,” Tui said.
Announcing he annual results, which saw revenue drop by 3% to 14.6 billion, Tui Travel chief executive Peter Long said: “We have delivered another year of out-performance against our growth roadmap achieving an underlying operating profit growth of 11% at constant currency rates.
“This demonstrates the strength and resilience of our business model in what has been a competitive trading environment for many tour operators and airlines.
“The combination of our market leadership position, scale, focus on unique holidays distributed increasingly online and our relationship with the customer throughout their whole holiday experience continues to provide a strong basis for sustainable, profitable growth.”
He added: “The merger with Tui AG will strengthen and future-proof our combined group.
“It will also enhance the certainty of long-term unique holiday growth and reinforce our clear competitive advantage through further control over the end-to-end customer experience.
“This will mark the start of an exciting new phase of growth, delivering significant opportunities and value to customers, employees and shareholders.”