TUI Group, in its group results overview for Q1FY2019, reported (12-Feb-2019) its markets and airlines segment faced "significant sector headwinds", with current bookings showing adverse impacts on 2H2019 operations and 34% of summer 2019 bookings sold to date. Lower margin performance is driven by the following factors:
- Later bookings due to hotter than expected weather conditions;
- Shift in demand from Western to Eastern Mediterranean, creating overcapacity in certain destinations such as the Canaries;
- Continued GBP weakness creating difficulties to improve margins on holidays sold to UK consumers.
TUI Group sees demand for leisure travel continuing to grow in core markets despite challenges in markets and airlines segment, and plans to enter into new markets generating EUR1 billion in revenue from one million customers in 2022. The group expects underlying EBITA to be "broadly stable in FY2019, compared with record performance in FY2018 of EUR1177 million, with a continued strong performance in holiday experiences offset by a continuation of sector headwinds in markets and airlines. [more - original PR]