Holiday group TUI has reported a £63 million hit from the recent travel chaos that crippled airports and led to flight cancellations and lengthy delays. The firm said its customers were impacted by about 200 flight cancellations in May and June, in particular due to woes at Manchester Airport amid staff shortages.
TUI remained loss-making in the three months to the end of June blaming the costs of the airport disruption, reporting third quarter underlying pre-tax losses of £23 million in its third quarter. This still marked a big improvement on the £566 million underlying loss suffered a year earlier thanks to the recent rebound in travel demand.
The firm said that with the airport disruption impact stripped out, it would have reported underlying earnings of £41 million in its third quarter – its first profit since the pandemic struck. It said holidaymakers were making more last-minute bookings and spending extra on their trips. Average holiday prices are at a “very high” level for summer 2022, up 18 per cent with customers booking more package holidays and higher value services such as room upgrades and longer stays.
