TUI Travel sees rise in full year profits

TUI Travel, Europe’s largest travel company, has reported a 43 per cent increase in its full-year profits.

The travel company was created in 2007 by the tie-up of the travel division of TUI AG and First Choice. For the year ended 30 September, it showed profits of £319.7 million, compared with £222.8 million for the previous year.

The parent group, Thomson, saw strong UK performance and benefited from merger synergies.

In the UK and Ireland division, underlying profits increased by £76.5 million, to £132.9 million, aided by capacity cuts of 22 per cent last winter and 43 per cent during the summer. Charter capacity was reduced by five per cent during the winter and seven per cent over the summer.

According to the travel group, early sales are “encouraging” for summer 2009, and the average UK charter selling price has risen by 10 per cent.

Capacity on packages from the UK for summer 2009 has been reduced by 16 per cent, with volumes 17 per cent down on prices that are up by 10 per cent over the last year.

TUI Travel has said that it will continue to focus on managing capacity “in anticipation of a weaker early booking environment.”

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.tui.com