Summer holiday bookings for tour operator Thomas Cook decreased sharply in the first two weeks of the year. Figures released by the company on Tuesday showed a decrease of 33 per cent in summer holiday package reservations from 1 January to 13 January. Analysts say the slump comes during a key booking time for travel [...]

A consumer watchdog has said that it believes TUI Travel, the UK’s largest holiday company, may have broken the law because of the manner in which it is promoting some of its travel offers. Subsidiary Thomson allegedly offered a limited amount of seats on a flight in an advert, but later added more seats at [...]

UK travel firm TUI has announced new ambitious plans for sustainable tourism practices. The tour operator revealed a three-year scheme this week, which begins with 20 promises for sustainable tourism that will be enacted in 2011. According to the press release, the measures will seek to reduce TUI’s carbon footprint from its operations both on [...]

Families planning to fly off on holiday later this year will be relieved by Chancellor George Osborne’s decision not to hike up Air Passenger Duty in his budget. The controversial tax already adds £240 to the cost of a family of four’s airline tickets to Florida. Any increase has been postponed until April next year. [...]

Ahead of tomorrow’s budget, in which Chancellor George Osborne is due to announce that he will be freezing an increase in Air Passenger Duty, Peter Long, chief executive of Tui Travel, said he welcomed the decision. He added that he would also like to see premium economy removed from the same tax pricing bracket as [...]

UK tour operators continue to urge that business continues as usual at Egypt’s Red Sea resorts. The news comes amid nearly two weeks of unprecedented protests that have crippled the country’s major cities including Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. However this week both Thomas Cook and TUI Travel assured holidaymakers that resort areas such as Sharm [...]

UK-based air carriers are largely opposed to the government reducing its stake in the national air traffic control system. The news comes from the Observer, which has reported that government officials are currently considering reducing the dominant 49% state share of the NATS agency in the effort of paying off the UK’s ballooning deficit. However [...]

UK Travel firm TUI Travel has said that the unrest in Egypt may take as much as £30 million from its revenues in the second quarter. The announcement came from the firm’s chief executive, Peter Long, who said that his company would be keeping a close eye on both Egypt and Tunisia. He said despite [...]

Bargain hunters looking for last minute deals on summer holidays are one of the reasons for falling profits, according to TUI Travel, the owners of Thompson Holidays. The group also blamed the disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud which drifted into European airspace earlier in the year for a drop off in sales. The disruption cost [...]

Research conducted by the BBC has revealed that some of the claims made by passengers stranded by the volcanic ash cloud over Europe earlier this year have been somewhat extreme. One customer has apparently applied to get the money he spent hiring a private jet to get him home reimbursed. Another passenger has asked that [...]