Tuesday, February 14, 2023 8:58 a.m.
Travel agency You reported a loss of €153m (£135m) for the final three months of 2022 as the German company warned of potentially tougher times ahead.
The Hanover-based company said the cost-of-living crisis could lead to a drop in demand for its holidays, with cash-strapped Europeans canceling trips abroad.
You warned that the war in Ukraine had caused fuel prices to spike, in a change that had increased the cost of bunker fuel for jets.
The travel conglomerate said while the impact of Covid had started to diminish, the global downturn threatened its business.
The announcement of Tui’s loss came a day after the Leeds firm Jet2 took over from Tui as the UK’s biggest tour operator, having sold holidays to 5.9 million people in the year to September 2022.
Tui meanwhile saw its losses shrink year-on-year, from 273.6 million euros in the period from October to December 2021 to losses of 153 million euros in October. to December 2022.
The reduction in losses is due to its business recovery since Covid-19 which has seen an increase in bookings in almost all segments except its tourist attractions divisions, Tui Musement.
Higher bookings saw Tui’s revenue rise 58.3% to 3.75 billion euros.
The German firm, however, blamed its losses on the “seasonality of tourism business” as it continued to refrain from paying a dividend.