Sawt Falasteen - Travel giant TUI on track for 'strong' summer despite wildfires

More than 5.5 million people travelled with TUI between April and June, up from 5.1 million a year earlier, helping the group to its first profitable third quarter since the start of the pandemic.

Underlying earnings before tax and interest (EBIT) rose to 169.4 million euro ($186 million), compared with a loss of 27 million euros over the same period a year earlier.

Revenues grew by more than 19 percent to 5.3 billion euros as travel demand booms despite higher prices.

"Summer 2023 is going very well and demand for holidays remains high," CEO Sebastian Ebel said in a statement.

"The heatwave in northern Europe in June and the wildfires in southern Europe have only dampened temporarily the previously strong development," he said.

"Overall it will be a very good travel summer and a good year for TUI in 2023."

Wildfires forced TUI to evacuate around 8,000 guests from the Greek island of Rhodes at the end of July.

The costs for repatriation flights, compensation to customers, and lost business are expected to total around 25 million euros and will be reflected in the group's full-year results, TUI said.

Nevertheless, the group expects to report "a significant improvement in underlying EBIT" for the full year compared with the previous financial year.

Bookings for the ongoing summer holiday season were six percent higher year-on-year, it added, while prices were up seven percent on average.

The TUI group suffered record losses in 2020 and 2021 when the travel sector was pummelled by restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

TUI received state aid from the German government to help it through the crisis, which it paid off in full in April.

D.Khalil--SF-PST