TUI AG said summer bookings are approaching pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, the latest sign that the travel sector is recovering, despite high inflation squeezing household budgets.
The world’s biggest tour operator said booking volumes were at 96 percent of 2019 levels, led by demand for travel to Spain, Greece and Turkey.
Prices are 26 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels, the company said.
Photo: Reuters
“Strong booking development and significantly improved quarterly figures underline our expectations: It will be a strong summer and a good financial year 2023, with a significantly higher operating result,” TUI chief executive officer Sebastian Ebel said in an earnings statement.
TUI, based in Hannover, Germany, received 4.2 billion euros (US$4.6 billion) in state bailouts in 2020 after the COVID-19 crisis punctured a decades-long boom in travel.
The company last month made its final repayment of its assistance package after a capital increase of 1.8 billion euros.
Europeans’ thirst for travel is driving TUI’s recovery. While household energy and food bills have surged in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, consumers are still willing to spend on vacations, despite the higher cost of accommodation and flights.
In the fiscal second quarter ending March 31, TUI’s loss narrowed to 242.2 million euros from 329.9 million euros a year earlier.
Analysts had estimated a loss of 228 million euros.
TUI confirmed its full-year guidance for a significant increase in underlying earnings.
Revenue rose to 3.2 billion euros from 2.1 billion euros.
The company said it had secured 8.3 million bookings to date for the summer, and that 55 percent of the program for the season had been sold, which TUI called “broadly in line” with the same season in 2019.
“Outlook commentary is encouraging, with summer ’23 booking close to pre-pandemic levels and pricing strong,” Jefferies International analyst James Wheatcroft wrote in a note.
Like low-cost airlines, TUI is seeking to increase its market share as higher household bills weigh on consumer spending, pushing people toward package holidays that include flights, accommodation, bus transfers and food, and helping them to control the cost of their trip.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS