Holiday operator Tui has confirmed a programme to axe 8,000 jobs after seeing summer bookings tumble by 83% in the wake of the pandemic.
The global travel giant announced in May a plan to cut the jobs as it sought to reduce its annual overheads by 30%.
Tui has received huge sums of cash from the German Federal Government to keep trading, including a further stabilisation package of €1.2bn announced last month.
Now, amid ever-changing Covid-19 travel restructions, the group says its global realignment programme to address group-wide costs won’t be delivered until financial year 2023, but that projects announced are already expected to deliver close to the €300m target savings.
The Anglo-German group said 1.4m customers have travelled with the group since restarting holidays – but said it was having to make further cuts to its programmes amid “continuous” changes in government travel advice.
It said it has cut its fourth quarter programme from 30% to just 25%, with the upcoming winter holiday capacity recently reduced by around another fifth.
Tui, which slumped to a £995m loss in its third quarter, has also switched to alternative low-risk destinations , enabling many customers to continue their holidays as planned, but said the last month has been impacted by “continuous changes in travel advice by various governments across our markets”, with holidaymakers now booking very last minute as a result.
Tui added that bookings for this summer are 83% lower than a year earlier and prices have fallen by 19%, while winter sales are 59% down year on year, with currently 30% sold for the adjusted winter capacity.
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Despite many holidqymakers leaving their bookings to the last minute, bookings are being made for next summer, when the firm expects to operate 80% adjusted capacity, and bookings are up 84%
TUI chief executive Friedrich Joussen said: “We have successfully restarted our operations; customers are enjoying their holidays with newly adapted hygiene protocols and we have taken 1.4m customers on their holidays since restart
“Destination availability at present is highly influenced by government policy and development of the pandemic, meaning the environment remains volatile, and is likely to remain so for the next few quarters.
“Leisure holidays remain important to customers and have been one of the most missed activities during the pandemic, with leisure travel expected to recover faster than business travel.
“Our integrated model, underpinned by our trusted and leading brand, offering differentiated products and attractive value propositions, combined with proven flexibility in a volatile environment, means we are strategically well placed to benefit as leisure travel volume recovers over the coming seasons.”