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Tui AG on Wednesday posted a sharp first half revenue jump, with the Anglo-German holiday operator's fortunes resembling pre-Covid times.
Tui shares were 3.2% higher at 223.99 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
The leisure, travel and tourism company said revenue in the first half ended March 31 soared to €4.50 billion from €716.3 million a year earlier. In the second quarter alone, revenue jumped to €2.13 billion from €248.1 million.
Despite strong year-on-year rises, both revenue figures fell short of what Tui achieved two years earlier, largely before the impact of Covid-19. Revenue in the first half of financial 2020 was €6.59 billion, while in the second quarter, it achieved revenue of €2.79 billion.
The Hanover, Germany-based saw its pretax loss narrow in the first half of financial 2022. Tui posted a pretax loss of €871.0 million, slimmed from €1.54 billion a year prior. In the second quarter, Tui's pretax loss narrowed to €466.5 million from €736.9 million.
Tui also trimmed its first half underlying loss before interest and tax to €603.5 million from €1.31 billion a year prior.
The improved top and bottom lines came despite a ‘more subdued January and February post Omicron restrictions’.
Tui said it operated 71% of its financial 2019 capacity during the second quarter.
‘Reflecting the increasing consumer confidence in departure, pent-up demand and the ramp up of operations accordingly, we exited the second quarter with an operated capacity of 75% in March 2022,’ the company added.
‘1.9 million customers departed in the second quarter, an increase of 1.7m customers versus the prior year, with the highest departure volume achieved again in March.’
For summer 2022, bookings are at 85% of 2019 levels.
Tui said: ‘Total bookings have been trending strongly with the last six weeks' bookings firmly surpassing Summer 2019 levels, boosted by the return to a more pre-pandemic environment of restriction-free travel.
‘The UK market in particular remains the most advanced booked, with bookings up 11% versus summer 2019. The latest positive booking trends, combined with clear pent-up demand as Omicron-related travel restrictions eased, increasing intention to holiday abroad for a beach holiday and a later booking profile, we are confident in our summer 2022 capacity assumption of close to normalised 2019 summer levels.’
All in all, the outlook for Tui is promising. It expects to return to ‘significantly positive’ underlying earnings before interest and tax for the current financial year.
In financial 2021, it reported an underlying loss before interest and tax of €2.08 billion, narrowed from €3.00 billion a year prior. In financial 2019, pre-pandemic, its underlying Ebit was €893.5 million.
‘After two years of turbulence, we expect to return to significantly positive underlying Ebit for financial year 2022 and we remain committed to reducing our German government exposure further,’ Tui added.
Tui in March said it planned to return the first part of the credit lines of around €700 million provided during the pandemic.
The financing was made available by the German government and private banks through three stabilization packages.
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