Tui Group chief executive Sebastian Ebel has identified opportunities to drive further growth in the UK market after the travel giant posted strong quarterly results on Tuesday.
The group noted average selling prices for both seasons were up 4% year on year to February 4. But it also reported a 24% increase in dynamic-package bookings in the three months to December to 600,000 and confirmed plans to boost these through direct connections to low-cost carrier platforms.
Ebel hailed the “increased sales” and “excellent margin” on dynamic packaging, saying: “A direct connect is very beneficial. We don’t have all the low-cost airlines in our dynamic-packaging platform [now]. [But] the gaps will be closed very soon.”
Asked whether Tui is poised to connect to Ryanair’s booking platform, Ebel declined to answer but said: “That is an interesting question. There are a lot of others we don’t have a direct connection to yet. It’s our clear target to link direct to hotels and airlines.”
Ebel reported UK summer bookings up 3% year on year to early February but noted the “very strong first weeks of January in the UK last year” and said: “Late business [for this winter] is strong in volume and margin.”
Tui lost its position as number-one Atol operator to Jet2holidays last year and Ebel insisted: “We see lots of opportunities to improve our result [given] the gap between the performance of a competitor and us.”
He noted: “The market is maybe slower. The macroeconomic [situation] is not giving the sector a headwind. But the demand for travel is very strong. It’s even more important for us that we do better than our competitors.”
Tui reported a group loss of €83.5 million for the three months to December but hailed an underlying profit for the quarter before interest and taxes. It recorded a 15% rise in quarterly revenue to €4.3 billion and 6% rise in passengers. Quarterly losses in Tui’s northern region, dominated by the UK, fell from €122 million to €50 million.
The group reported 9.4 million bookings for winter 2023-24 and summer 24 combined – 700,000 more than at the same stage a year ago.
Tui shareholders confirmed the group’s delisting from the London Stock Exchange at an annual general meeting on Tuesday and its move to a higher-grade listing in Frankfurt from April.
Shareholders voted voted by a large majority of 98.35% in favour of the delisting.
Chief financial officer Mathias Kiep said: “We are pleased that Tui’s shareholders have followed our recommendation and voted in favour of the delisting.
“They have thus also followed the proposal of the investors who brought this issue to our attention last summer.
“Trading in the Tui share had already shifted to Germany to a large extent.
“The advantages of a main listing in Frankfurt are obvious: the structures are simplified, liquidity is centralised and improved in one trading venue and the simplified structure supports the EU requirements for ownership and control of our airlines.
“Nevertheless, the UK market remains one of our core activities and this has no impact on our strategy of a broad shareholder base.”