Tui AG on Wednesday touted surging revenue in its third quarter as 2022 summer travel bookings came close to 2019 levels as the Anglo-German tour operator expects to become profitable in the full year.

In its third quarter ended June 30, revenue soared to €4.43 billion from €649.7 million a year ago. This was 6.7% lower than the €4.75 billion the Hanover-based firm reported for its third quarter of 2019.

Its Market & Airlines unit revenue rebounded to €3.90 billion from €546.8 million a year ago, but was still below the €4.00 billion in the third quarter of 2019.

Tui was still loss-making due to disruptions at airports.

The underlying loss before interest and taxes narrowed sharply to €27.0 million from €669.8 million. Tui noted that it was still not profitable due to €75 million in costs resulting from travel chaos at airports. The company noted that without the disruption, underlying Ebit would have been at €48 million.

The company added its current summer booking levels are at 90% of that of summer 2019, with July and August at 93%. Further, 2022 average prices are ‘significantly higher than 2019,’ Tui explained.

‘People want to travel. Holidays continue to top the list of planned spending – this has not changed. Although the entire European airline sector continues to face challenges, we have successfully ramped up our business with a significant increase in demand and achieved a good third quarter,’ Chief Financial Officer Sebastian Ebel said, who will become chief executive on October 1, replacing Friedrich Joussen.

The tour operator expects to report a profitable Ebit for the financial year ending September 30. It would be Tui’s first profit since the start of the Covid pandemic. In its financial year 2019, it posted a pretax profit of €691.4 million, down 28% from €965.8 million a year prior.

In July, Tui said it paid back €671million in German government aid it needed due to the Covid pandemic but still has to pay back three other state aids totalling €2.6 billion, namely Silent Participation I, warrant bond, and credit lines.

The conditions of Tui’s Covid aid from the German government included a suspension of dividends until it pays back the support. The Hanover-based Anglo-German holiday operator last paid a dividend of €0.54 in respect of its 2019 financial year.

Tui shares fell 1.2% to 141.70 pence each on Wednesday morning in London.

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