Wednesday, December 8th, 2021
Also loss of billions in 2021
TUI expects to return from the crisis in the summer
After a disastrous first Corona year, bookings at TUI picked up again in the summer. But despite billions in sales, the group will also write deep red numbers in 2021. If the forecasts are correct, bookings should recover from the corona shock in the next summer season.
The recovery of tourism from the corona shock in summer did not save the travel group TUI from a loss in the last quarter of its financial year 2021. In the usually strongest season from July to September, the world’s largest tour operator achieved sales of 3.5 billion euros, almost three times as much as in the same period of the previous year. In operational terms, however, there was a loss of 97 million euros, as the company announced.
TUI boss Fritz Joussen nevertheless spoke of a successful summer season with a clear recovery. Because a year ago TUI had made an operating loss of a billion euros. “The overall trends are intact,” Joussen explained. “For the summer of 2022 and the main travel season, we expect the booking level to return to roughly the same level as before Corona 2019.”
For the year as a whole, TUI posted a net loss of almost 2.5 billion euros with sales of 4.7 billion euros. Sales fell by 40 percent compared to the 2020 financial year, but the group loss was even higher at 3.1 billion euros due to the Corona crisis. TUI shares had recently recovered somewhat after weeks of downward slide, which went hand in hand with the swelling fourth wave of corona infections in autumn and the emergence of the new Omikron Covid variant.
The tightening of travel restrictions in a number of countries in the fight against the pandemic, which had not been loosened for a long time, dampened hopes of an early end to the corona crisis. TUI stated that the reduced capacities in the current first quarter were almost fully booked. That corresponds to 69 percent of the pre-crisis level.