Europe’s largest travel company, TUI, said bookings to Portugal had “skyrocketed” by 182% since it was placed on the UK’s green list last Friday, allowing travel without quarantine.
The chief executive, Fritz Joussen, said TUI would deploy the bigger Dreamliner planes rather than 737s to Portugal to try to meet demand for seats from England’s only green-listed mainstream holiday destination.
However, Joussen said the UK’s “very cautious” attitude to restarting travel was an obstacle to recovery for TUI and would let Europeans “get the best seats”.
He added: “The relative movement to Portugal is enormous but it’s not a particularly big destination – what is needed is Spain and Greece.”
Spain’s Balearic and Canary islands and Greece are expected to be the preferred destinations for Europeans booking long-awaited summer holidays when the travel industry reopens, Tui said, although it will operate only three-quarters of its summer 2019 capacity.
Joussen said he hoped the UK would soon add those countries, where Covid-19 incidence rates on island holiday resorts are well below 10 in 100,000 people. “Otherwise everyone in Europe will make vacation but not the UK … A colleague running an airline said to me, how come the Europeans, with higher incidence and less vaccinations, grab the best seats?”
He said the strength of pent-up demand meant TUI might sell packages into the autumn, should destinations agree. “Extending the season is a viable option.”
About 2.6 million people have booked to travel with Tui over the summer, which is slightly lower than the number reported in March, with cancellations down to travel restrictions.