Egypt turmoil hits holiday bookings

Thomas Cook said its slow start to winter trading was also due to warm weather in Europe, following on from a weak finish to summer trading, when UK bookings fell three per cent but prices rose 4.5 per cent.

Thomson and First Choice parent TUI has responded to the crisis in Egypt by significantly shrinking capacity to the country and deploying most flights to other destinations, after countries including Germany advised holidaymakers not to travel there. Thomas Cook also said it is shifting capacity to match demand.

TUI said that while package holidays to Red Sea resorts remain on sale from the UK, demand has slumped.

TUI, Europe’s biggest tour operator, reported a “strong” summer of UK trading, prompting it to hike full-year profit hopes. A six per cent increase in prices and two per cent more customers combined to lift its UK sales eight per cent, and most of its summer programme is now fully sold.

Excluding flights to Egypt, TUI said it has sold 29 per cent of its UK winter programme, with bookings four per cent ahead and average prices up seven per cent, resulting in sales up 11 per cent.

Thomas Cook said it has sold 97 per cent of its UK summer bookings, adding the three per cent slowdown in bookings compared with a “very strong” market for last-minute getaways a year ago and followed a 2.5 per cent capacity reduction. It said summer bookings across the group beat its targets by more than four per cent.

Thomas Cook, which is midway through a painful turnaround driven by chief executive Harriet Green, said results for the year to the end of September will be in line with expectations despite the recent setback.

And Thomas Cook said that while it is at an early stage in the winter bookings cycle, average selling prices are up “strongly” in all markets.

It said: “Not unexpectedly, given geopolitical events and warm weather across Europe, winter trading has started more slowly than last year across most markets.”