Tui’s UK & Ireland managing director says he is pleased the operator chose not to boost capacity for this summer’s peak holiday season, adding rivals’ decisions to do so had left “a lot of (unsold) capacity in the market”.
Neil Swanson said a trend towards later bookings had continued in 2025 but insisted he was comfortable with Tui’s sold position and pricing.
“I am pleased we didn’t increase,” he said. “Jet2 increased and easyJet increased massively and we stayed broadly flat and that feels like the right place to be from where I’m sitting.”
Swanson told a dinner for journalists there was a “tricky balance” to strike between driving early sales and maintaining margins, but said he was confident Tui had found the balance so far this year.
“The demand is strong in the market and everyone will sell what they’ve got to sell, but clearly that does depress some margins,” he said. “It’s a balancing act but there’s a lot of capacity in the UK market.
“I don’t want to get stuck in a really lates market where everybody has a lot of capacity left to sell.”
He added: “It’s the price you’re selling it at. You sacrifice a bit of margin early in the year but you’ve got less to sell in the lates.
“I think there will be a strengthening (of demand) but capacity has gone up a lot with Jet2 up 10% and easyJet up 35%. These are big numbers of extra seats available which will play into the equation.”
Sales and marketing director Bart Quinton Smith said customers were increasingly looking for deals before confirming bookings, adding “price sensitivity is very prominent this year”.
He also hailed Tui’s move to increase sales of packages incorporating third-party flights, saying it was well-positioned to “take advantage of competitive pricing from partner airlines”.
Swanson added: “Some of the seat prices at Easter are ridiculously low and into early summer as well. With our dynamic model we can take advantage of that for customers who don’t necessarily want the Tui product end to end.”