Tourism giant TUI narrows losses in Q1

GERMAN tourism and travel giant TUI said Tuesday it got off to a good start to the year and narrowed its losses in the first three months.

TUI, which runs its business year from October to September, said in a statement that its net loss in the three months to December amounted to 104.6 million euros ($118.5 million), compared with a loss of 109.8 million euros a year earlier.

First-quarter sales were up 5.4 percent at 3.544 billion euros.

TUI “delivered a good start to the year,” said chief executives Friedrich Joussen and Peter Long.

“This reflects a significant increase in profitability in hotels and resorts and cruises,” the statement said.

“The travel result is in line with our expectations. We … expect to deliver growth in the underlying operating result in the remainder of the year. Based on this result and our current trading, we remain confident of delivering full year underlying operating profit growth of 10-15 percent,” TUI said.