TUI: Another loss of billions due to the corona crisis

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Passengers at check-in for TUifly flight in Hanover (March 2021)

Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / dpa

The world's largest tour operator TUI has reported a high annual loss for the second time in a row due to the corona pandemic - but the group is optimistic about the new year.

In the past fiscal year to the end of September 2021, the group's losses amounted to just under 2.5 billion euros, the company announced.

In the previous 2019/2020 financial year, TUI had already posted a loss of 3.1 billion euros.

However, according to the group, the restart in summer 2021 was successful, and the first winter quarter of 2022 was already "almost completely booked".

"We assume that the summer of 2022 will reach a largely normalized booking level," said TUI boss Fritz Joussen.

Bookings for the first quarter of 2022 currently reached 69 percent of the pre-crisis level.

The transformation of the group is also progressing, said Joussen: "We have already achieved around 60 percent of the annual cost savings of 400 million euros announced for 2023 in 2021."

In the fourth quarter of the past financial year, the travel company reported sales of 3.5 billion euros.

In the same quarter of the previous year it was only 1.2 billion euros.

The bottom line, however, was a minus of 97 million euros in the operating result.

Overall, the group is optimistic for the new year despite the challenges.

"The overarching trends are intact," said Joussen.

People are willing to pay more for travel.

The prices in the winter season were 15 percent higher than before the pandemic, and for the summer of 2022 prices rose by as much as 23 percent.

The Omikron variant of the corona virus could, however, make a dash through the bill.

The group will "decide flexibly" whether vacation trips in the winter program are offered "at the lower end of the range" in view of possible corona restrictions.

TUI, the world's largest provider of package tours, is particularly hard hit by the consequences of the corona pandemic.

The federal government supported the group with three loans totaling 4.3 billion euros.

fdi / AFP