TUI’s sales leap puts its ailing rivals in shade

TUI put the travails at arch-rival Thomas Cook into context on Thursday, boasting of rising sales that sent the shares jumping.

Thomas Cook has blamed the hot UK summer for two profit warnings in close order.

It plunged to a loss of £163 million for the year, figures it reported last month.

TUI, which last year killed off the Thomson brand, saw sales for the year up 5% to €19.5 billion (£17.6 billion).

Profits slipped 10% to €972 million in what the company admitted is a “challenging” market.

Analysts say TUI moved faster to update its holidays offer and expand cruise deals. Its shares gained 6% to 1213p.

David Madden at CMC Markets, said the results amounted to a “very respectable set of full-year figures”.

“Given what has gone on in the travel sector lately, it was an impressive performance from Tui,” he said.

“Thomas Cook and Ryanair issued profit warnings and Flybe have put themselves up for sale, so the sector is clearly under pressure.”