19 April 2010

 

TUI TRAVEL PLC

 

ERUPTION OF EYJAFJALLAJOKULL VOLCANO, ICELAND

 

 

TUI Travel PLC confirms that on Sunday 18 April, it had approximately 100,000 customers who were due to have returned home from holiday, but have been unable to as a result of the closure of much of Northern Europe's airspace since Thursday 15 April 2010, caused by volcanic dust in the atmosphere. The welfare of our customers is paramount and the Group is providing appropriate assistance to all those in resort whose return home has been delayed.  In the UK, of those customers who were due to go on holiday and whose flights have been cancelled, around 90% are choosing to re-book their holidays for a later date.

 

We are working with other tour operators and airlines to ensure that both regulatory authorities and Governments across our source markets permit the resumption of flights as soon as possible. 

 

For the Group, this is a period of relatively low holiday activity, but the disruption to our programmes will still have a financial impact.  Currently, the estimated cumulative cost to the Group, up to and including 18 April 2010, is circa £20 million.  Estimated daily costs thereafter will run at approximately £5 million - £6 million. These cash costs are one-off in nature and will be disclosed accordingly in our Interim statement on 11 May 2010.

 

 

Enquiries:

 

TUI Travel   Paul Bowtell, Chief Financial Officer Andy Jones, Director of Finance & Investor Relations Paul Rushton, Head of Investor Relations Lesley Allan, Corporate Communications Director	+44 (0) 1293 645 713 +44 (0) 1293 645 795 +44 (0) 1293 645 795 +44 (0) 1293 645 774
Hudson Sandler   Michael Sandler / Kate Hough	+44 (0) 20 7796 4133