TUI’s summer demand grows as bookings ‘unaffected’ by Ukraine war
TUI’s demand has grown to 80 per cent of 2019 levels as bookings remain almost “unaffected” by the war in Ukraine, the company said today.
Overall summer bookings went up by 2.1 million since February, while in the UK demand grew 14 per cent on pre-Covid levels. Nordic countries and Poland, though, registered “subdued” levels of activity since the war’s outbreak.
“We are on course and the trends are intact,” said chief executive Fritz Joussen. “People want to travel, we see the demand in bookings and expect a good Summer 22 at TUI.”
Following the surge, TUI said it will start paying back the rescue loans obtained from the German Government, private banks and shareholders.
TUI said it will return €700m (£590m) of the almost €5bn (£4.2bn) received in bailout packages, but it will maintain €3.4bn (£2.9bn) in liquidity to continue its recovery.
Joussen’s comments have come less than a month after TUI’s main shareholder Alexey Mordashov was forced to resign from the group’s board after he became a target of EU sanctions against Russia, Morning Wire reported.
“The aim of the EU sanctions is to prevent Mr Mordashov from disposing of his shares in TUI AG,” said the company in a statement on 2 March.
“This is to prevent Mr Mordashov from realising any proceeds or profits from his investment in TUI.”
A close friend of Vladimir Putin, Mordashov owned 34 per cent of the company for 15 years.