Travel organization TUI expects to be able to run a strong summer despite the omikron variant of the corona virus. The world's largest tour operator notes that bookings for next summer are above pre-crisis levels, as concerns about the virus in Europe wane. According to CEO Fritz Joussen, the demand for travel is high in all markets, also because in his view "the way out of the pandemic is becoming increasingly clear", he said in an explanation of the quarterly figures.

In the closing quarter of 2021, the first reporting period of the broken financial year of TUI, the travel organization achieved a turnover of 2,4 billion euros. That is five times more than during the same period in the first corona year. The company closed the quarter with a loss of 384 million euros. That almost halved the deficit of 780 million euros from the last three months of 2020. The loss was now slightly higher than experts on average had foreseen, also because fewer winter holidays were booked by omikron.

TUI also notices that people are clearly ready for a holiday. For example, holidaymakers are willing to pay more for a trip. The prices of booked holidays are about 22 percent higher than average. In view of the improving travel market, TUI also expects to be able to repay part of the state support it received to get through the crisis.

The signals from TUI mark the growing optimism in the travel sector. It is expected that the corona measures will be scrapped and that there will be a major catch-up. Airlines such as Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air announced last month that they would significantly increase capacity for next summer to meet the expected growing demand for tickets.

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