TUI LAYS ON BIGGER PLANES AS LATE SUMMER BOOKINGS SURGE

HOLIDAYMAKERS are pushing back their trips abroad until later in the year after the Government put just 12 countries on its travel ‘green’ list.

As it reported a £1.3bn loss for the six months to March, Tui said 2.6m people had booked breaks for this summer.

This is down from the 2.8m bookings it had in March, as confusion around travel and quarantine restrictions prompted cancellations. And the 2.6m figure is still 69pc lower than in 2019 before the pandemic struck.

But the Anglo-German group said there was huge demand for holidays later in summer and winter. It may even extend the usual peak season into the autumn to cater to the surge in demand. Winter bookings are almost a fifth higher than they were before the pandemic.

And there is expected to be a huge rush in summer 2022. Nearly three times as many Britons have arranged holidays through Tui for next year than they did in 2019.

Boss Fritz Joussen said holidays were ‘at the top of Europeans’ wish lists’.

He added: ‘The anticipation is palpable, these are opportunities for tourism and also for Tui.’

But Joussen warned that unless the UK relaxes its strict travel guidance, Britons were at risk of losing out on the ‘best seats to the best place’ to European customers. Portugal is one of the countries on the UK’s ‘green’ list, meaning tourists returning will not need to quarantine. Joussen said there had been so many bookings there that Tui would have to switch to using bigger planes.

Tui believes people will flock to Greece, the Canary Islands and the Balearics. Many of the 2.6m people who will be travelling this summer will have rebooked, meaning that the company will not be bringing in new revenue.

The £1.3bn first-half loss is almost twice the £730m Tui lost in the same period the year before. Revenue tumbled 89pc to £615m.

Tui shares fell 2.1pc, or 9.1p, to 418.5p.