TUI, one of the world’s largest travel groups, said Tuesday it had extended the summer season for Türkiye and Greece to accommodate heightened demand after extreme heat sparked disruptions in some of the holidaymakers’ plans.

"We have seen strong demand in the final weeks of the summer season which traditionally runs to the end of October," said Sebastian Ebel, the TUI chief executive.

"As a consequence, we recently announced the extension of the season into November in particular to Türkiye and Greece, to cover demand outside the traditional summer season," Ebel said in a statement.

The travel group confirmed its full-year results were on track to "increase substantially," citing a strong summer and an increase in winter bookings, easing investor concerns about the impact of extreme weather.

It said it had seen 13.7 million summer bookings for 2023, up 5% over the previous summer season. Demand for October, usually the final month of the season, is 8% higher than last year, it noted.

The news confirmed that the post-pandemic travel boom was still going strong, sending TUI’s shares up 6.5%, placing them among the top gainers on the STOXX index on Tuesday.

European airlines have also benefited from a bumper tourist season across the continent, but extreme weather ranging from heat waves to flooding dampened some of the optimism about a strong travel rebound.

"Had it not been for the various events during the last few months which were outside of our control, not least the wildfires on Rhodes, we would have performed ahead of expectations," Ebel said in a statement.

Forward bookings were up 15% against winter of 2022 and 2023, the company said, while summer bookings were at 96% of pre-pandemic levels.

Even as Europe battled extreme weather that sparked unprecedented levels of disruption, the company said it was on track to reconfirm its underlying earnings before interest and tax would increase substantially for the fourth quarter and the year, with continued growth set for 2025 and 2026.

The share rise showcases investors' optimism after strikes and staff shortages weighed on the travel sector as it recovered from the pandemic, analysts said.

"I think the positive reaction here is to a clean set of results, with signs of acceleration into October and winter," said Richard Clarke, an analyst for Bernstein.

Turbulent summer

Eurocontrol said in July that weather-related air travel disruption was two and a half times higher than in 2022, with thunderstorms being the largest cause of delay.

Last week, TUI said it was monitoring adverse weather conditions in its key destinations. Earlier, it forecasted losses of up to 25 million euros due to wildfires on the Greek islands.

Strikes and a technical glitch in air traffic management inputs in Britain also disrupted travel this summer, adding more concern that consumer appetite for airlines like TUI and Ryanair might wane into the winter.

TUI said it expanded its winter program by 11% compared to the 2022/23 season.

"This is in particular the case in the U.K. and is enhanced by our increased dynamic product offering, providing more flexibility and choice for our customers," it noted.

Ebel said around 30,000 seats had been added for destinations, including Türkiye’s Mediterranean resort Antalya and the Greek islands of Rhodes and Crete up to mid-November.

Enjoying a robust summer, Turkish tourism industry officials have already said they expect a prolonged season this year, as the country seeks to accomplish its year-end target of hosting up to 60 million tourists.

Some 26.77 million foreigners arrived from January through July, a 16.2% year-over-year jump, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry data.

Arrivals surged 80.33% to 44.6 million in 2022, just shy of the peak of 45.1 million in 2019, as the lingering effects of the pandemic dissipated and Russian arrivals rocketed after Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

This year’s momentum has been driven by an influx of holidaymakers from Europe, particularly Germany and the United Kingdom, besides arrivals from Russia, mainly due to flight restrictions imposed by Western nations over Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.

Tourism is a critical source of revenue for Türkiye as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government focus on reducing the current account deficit to tackle stubborn inflation.

Tourism contributes about 10% to Türkiye’s gross domestic product (GDP). Around 1.7 million people worked in accommodation and food services in 2022 – about 5% of total employment.