Holiday company TUI on Thursday said bookings had increased by 1.5m since the start of the summer reflecting pent-up demand when Covid restrictions were eased.
The company posted reported a sharp rise in third quarter revenue but said sales were down almost 80% for the first nine months of 2021.
Third quarter revenue spiked to €649.7m, up from €71.8m in 2020. On a nine-month basis to the end of June it was €1.3bn compared with €6.7bn for the same period last year. TUI posted a quarterly adjusted EBIT loss of €669.8m for the three months to June 30.
TUI added that cash flow before financing in the third quarter was €320m, meaning it was positive again for the first time during the pandemic.
Progress in the third quarter was driven by good momentum in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Poland, TUI said.
It that it currently had 4.2m bookings and was seeing strong demand and booking momentum in recent weeks, as travel from the UK was to partially restart.
However, the group also cut its summer capacity to 60% of the size of its 2019 programme, down from the 75% it had planned in May, as UK travel restrictions lasted longer than expected.
