Tui Travel has said it is confident of achieving an underlying profit growth of “at least 9%” for the full year, compared with its previous predictions of between 7-10%.
The group revealed the news in its pre-close trading update, which was announced this morning.
It said it had seen a strong high-season summer for this year, with the season ending with higher average selling prices across the sector.
It added that it was “pleased” with its UK yield performance.
In the UK, the group said 98% of its programme had been sold for summer 2014. This compared favourably with Germany, where 97% was sold, although the Nordics saw 100% sold.
Looking ahead to winter 2014/15, Tui said it had sold approximately 34% of overall mainstream programme which it added was in line with this time last year.
In particular, the group noted that it was seeing high demand in the UK for long-haul destinations such as Jamaica and Mexico, which it said was driven by the expansion of its 787 Dreamliner fleet.
Meanwhile online bookings for the group in the UK were up 11%, accounting for nearly half (47%) of all bookings – up three percentage points compared with last year.
With regards to summer 2015, the group said it ws “encouraged by the strong start to UK trading”, with bookings up 11%. Average selling prices are up 2%, and overall, 16% of the programme has been sold.
Commenting, Peter Long, chief executive of TUI Travel PLC, said: “We are very pleased with our trading during the Summer 2014 peak season, particularly in the UK and Germany, with most of our programmes now almost fully sold.
“Our strong trading and market performance continues to be driven by increased customer demand for unique holidays and higher conversion rates from our web platforms, driven by our digital transformation strategy.
“Our flexible and resilient business model is enabling us to deliver sustainable, profitable growth against a backdrop of more competitive trading in the commodity space and an increase in airline capacity.”
