French holidays boost TUI results

The firm said it saw no signs of a slowdown

Holiday group TUI Travel has reported a narrowing of half-year losses, helped by improved French sales and solid results in the UK and Nordic countries.

Europe's biggest travel firm reported an underlying pre-tax loss of £294m ($578m), compared with a loss of £339m for the first half of 2007.

TUI Travel was formed in 2007 by a tie up between TUI AG's travel arm and UK company First Choice.

The firm said it saw no signals that the economic slowdown had dented sales.

It added that there were no signs that people were "trading down".

TUI chief executive Peter Long said: "This confirms our research that the annual holiday is an important component of the family budget".

TUI Travel said trading for the 2008/9 winter period had kicked off well, with sales 15% higher in the UK, even though it had 16% less capacity.

The firm said talks with German airline Lufthansa about a possible combination of Germanwings and TUIfly were continuing. The discussions got underway in January.