TUI’s UK passenger numbers down 7.3% in third quarter
A “difficult market environment” saw Thomson’s customer numbers in the UK, Ireland, and Nordic countries fall 5.4% to 2.36 million in the third quarter.
The Northern Europe sector, which also includes Thomsonfly’s charter and scheduled flights and TUIfly Nordic, also saw turnover drop by 4.3% to €1.74 billion.
However, earnings were slightly up year-on-year at €235 million compared to €229 million in the third quarter of 2005.
In the UK, customer numbers fell 7.3% to 1.82 million. No other UK only figures were revealed.
Announcing its financial results today, parent company TUI AG said: “Restructuring measures initiated in 2005, however, had a positive impact by improving cost structures for example through commission cuts at third-party distribution.”
Overall, its shipping and tourism business increased total turnover by 8.3% to €6.74 billion.
The tourism division, which also includes business in the rest of Europe, saw turnover decline slightly by 2.4% to €5.16 billion, while shipping recorded an increase in turnover of 73% to €1.51 billion euros.
But earnings developed differently, with tourism closing on 2005 levels, but shipping recorded a considerable decline to €25 million, compared to €95 million in 2005.
This meant that overall, TUI’s third quarter earnings fell from €708 million in 2005 to €529 million in 2006.
Looking ahead, tourism turnover for the winter season is 5.8% up year-on-year at Group level, with customer numbers up 11.5% year-on-year.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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