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HIGHLIGHTS
- TUI AG released its latest list of holiday cancellations, including cruises and flights, on the back of COVID-19 restrictions.
- The company announced the suspension of flights and cruise services to destinations including Thailand, Italy, Mexico, Spain and Turkey starting 7 September 2021.
- TUI axed flights to Fuerteventura from East Midlands Airport as a part of a review of its flying programme.
The holiday operator, TUI AG (LON: TUI), released its latest list of holiday cancellations, including cruises and flights, on the back of COVID-19 restrictions. The company announced the suspension of flights and cruise services to destinations including Thailand, Italy, Mexico, Spain and Turkey as of 7 September 2021. TUI axed flights to Fuerteventura from East Midlands Airport as a part of a review of its flying programme.
The company, however, continues to offer bi-weekly flights to holidaymakers to Lanzarote and tri-weekly flights to Tenerife in the Canary Islands from the airport.
TUI’s cruise and lakes and mountains holidays segment have been impacted by the changes, and customers are being notified following the latest government COVID-19 travel restrictions. The UK government announced that the latest list of red, amber and green countries will be reviewed tri-weekly and will also provide details of quarantine and COVID testing requirements.
Amidst the changing COVID-19 related travel restrictions, TUI is assuring customers of continued flexibility and a fee-free changes policy until the end of April 2022 for holiday packages, flights and accommodation bookings. The company also announced a fee-free policy for TUI River Cruises and Marella Cruises and destinations on the green watchlist.
Cancellation details
TUI announced the following cancellation that would be applicable starting 7 September 2021:
- Cancellation of flight-only and accommodation-only bookings to Naples slated to depart on or before 9 September 2021.
- Cancellation of flight-only and accommodation-only bookings to Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Aruba, Cape Verde, Cuba, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Florida, India, Jamaica, Indonesia, Maldives, Mexico, Mauritius, Seychelles, etc., due to depart on or before 25 September 2021.
- Cancellation of flight-only and accommodation-only bookings to destinations in Italy, Bulgaria, Mexico, Croatia, Malta, Thailand, etc., slated to depart on or before 31 October 2021.
- Cancellation of lakes and mountains holidays and cruise services.
TUI Group share price performance
The shares of TUI traded at GBX 309.30, up by 2.35% at 11:26 AM on 7 September 2021. The shares of the company gave a return of 41.65% in the last one year to shareholders, and the market cap stood at £3,322.37 million.
(Data source: EODHD/Others)
Financial performance
TUI recorded revenues of €650 million for the quarter ended 30 June 2021, driven by the restart of travel across major markets and reopening of destinations. About 4.2 million customers were booked for the Summer 2021 season in the quarter, an increase of 1.5 million bookings since H1 update.
In the cruises business, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises and TUI Cruises increased operations in the quarter. About seven of the eleven ships offered services across Europe during the third quarter in 2021. TUI Cruises sailed non-stop since July 2020, and the company’s Marella Cruises resumed operations in June 2021.
Bottom line
Continuous changes in travel restrictions are expected to impact not only operations but also profits and revenues of travel agents. Investors choosing to invest in travel stocks must thus undertake thorough research before investing in these stocks as they may be prone to changes driven by the imposition of travel related restrictions, and their financial performance could get impacted consequently.
