It was interesting to see both package holiday giant TUI and budget airline Ryanair use the word “robust” in recent days in relation to customer demand as they updated investors on financial performance.
Given the economic headwinds that have weighed so heavily on households for so long now, it was reassuring to hear that this protracted squeeze is not dampening overall demand for overseas travel.
Airline easyJet was also in fine fettle yesterday as it published half-year results, declaring: “We continue to see a positive build in demand for easyJet's flights and holidays this summer, with booked load factors ahead year-on-year for both Q3 and Q4.”
easyJet’s first-half revenues rose from £2.046 billion to £2.156bn. This rise was assisted by a jump in the revenues of its easyJet holidays division to £400m in the six months to March 31, from £311m in the previous first half.
And, late last month, package holiday company and airline Jet2 was in upbeat form as it reported “healthy profit growth”.
Both TUI, which like Jet2 operates an airline as well as offering package holidays, and Ryanair flagged the impact of the later Easter on their results to end-March.
Much of the coverage on Ryanair’s results on Monday focused on the fall in its profits.
However, while the airline again highlighted its position that delays in the delivery of Boeing aircraft are constraining its growth potential, it also declared it had become “the first EU airline to carry 200 million guests in one year”.
Its passenger numbers rose to 200.2 million in the year to March 31, from 183.7 million in the prior 12 months, an increase of 9%.
Revenues were up by 4% at €13.95bn.
And Ryanair noted that it had made an after-tax profit of €1.61bn in spite of 7% lower fares. After-tax profit was down 16% from €1.92bn in the prior 12 months, although Ryanair did flag the impact of Easter falling in the quarter to March 31 in 2024 but in April this year.
Ryanair said: “The absence of a full Easter in Q1, consumer spending pressure, driven by higher-for-longer interest rates and inflation in H1, and a big drop off in OTA (online travel agency) bookings prior to [summer] 24 necessitated repeated price stimulation last year.”
The airline added: “To date, [summer] 25 demand is strong, with peak fares trending - modestly - ahead of prior year. Q1 fares will benefit from having a full Easter holiday in April, and weak prior-year comps, and Q1 fares are on track to finish a mid-high-teen per cent ahead of Q1 [full year] 25. With limited visibility, we currently expect Q2 pricing to recover some of the 7% decline we experienced in PY Q2.”
Eye-catchingly, it declared: “We are seeing robust [summer] 25 travel demand across our network.”
And Ryanair said it “cautiously” expected to “recover most, but not all of last year’s 7% fare decline, which should lead to reasonable net profit growth” in the year to March 2026.
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Reflecting on its winter 2024/25 season relative to a year earlier as it reported results for the six months to March 31 last week, TUI said: “The Canaries, Egypt, mainland Spain and Cape Verde proved to be the pick of our short and medium haul holiday destinations, with Mexico, Dominican Republic, Thailand and UAE the key long-haul getaways. Bookings across both our key markets were ahead of the prior season. In UK, bookings closed up +1%, slightly ahead against the level reported in February.”
Updating on the summer 2025 season, TUI declared its average selling price (ASP) “remains well ahead at +4%, maintaining the level reported in our February 2025 update”.
It added: “The higher ASP is helping to mitigate the higher cost environment. Our short and medium haul offering continues to register the strongest demand, led by Spain, Greece and Turkey. In UK, bookings are in line, with 64% of the programme sold to date.”
Noting its revenue for the three months to March 31 was up 1.5% at €3.7bn, the airline and package holiday company declared: “Revenue was supported by continuing strong travel and tourism market fundamentals and robust consumer demand.”
Jet2 on April 29 reported that, following its trading update in mid-February, the board expects to report a group profit before foreign exchange revaluation and taxation for the year ended March 31, 2025, of between £565 million and £570m, excluding £10m of profit on disposal of assets primarily from its retired Boeing 757-200 fleet.
The company declared: “This represents another year of healthy profit growth, up approximately 9% on the prior year and is in line with current market expectations.”
Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy said: “We are very pleased with how the 2025 financial year has ended with another year of healthy profit growth...Although still very early in FY26, we are satisfied with progress for summer 2025 so far.”
easyJet, highlighting the demand it has been experiencing, declared yesterday: “Revenue performance in the period was largely the outcome of increased customer volumes resulting from the additional flying to a broader network in a more productive way. In response to customer demand, easyJet has both increased capacity on existing routes as well as offering new routes covering new city and country destinations including Luxor, Cape Verde, Georgia and Norway.”
There is much positive, it seems, in the updates from these major airlines and holiday providers.
In many ways it feels like a different lifetime but it was not so very long ago that much of the overseas travel sector was effectively in mothballs amid the coronavirus pandemic.
There has been so little to celebrate since on the economic front, with no end of headwinds for consumers and businesses alike and the outlook appearing far from sunny.
This makes the resilience of the overseas travel sector - strength which is crucial for holiday companies, airlines, and travel agents - all the more impressive.
And we should bear in mind the importance of the travel sector’s resilience not only to these companies but also airports, as they continue to rebuild connectivity, and for people in terms of opportunities to travel.
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