Tui Group has reported a €2.4 billion loss for the financial year as it battles back from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The figure is an improvement on losses of €3.5 billion seen the year before.

The holiday giant said it was close to breaking even in the final quarter of its financial year, as the travel climate continued to improve.

Tui said the first quarter of its new financial year was 93 per cent booked, based on lower winter capacity projections.

However, figures were still a third below pre-pandemic levels.

Tui, which reported a 40 per cent fall in revenue from €7.9 billion to €4.3 billion in the year to the end of September, said Easter was already running at about 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

Fritz Joussen, chief executive of Tui Group, sought to sound upbeat: “The operating business is back.

“We are generating significant cash inflows and achieving positive results again in many markets and with our hotels and Tui hotel brands.

“We expect summer 2022 to reach a largely normalised booking level.”

Tui said there would be flexibility in deciding whether to offer winter programme capacity at the lower end of the range depending on the impact of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

For winter and the coming year, a statement said holidaymakers were choosing higher-value offers, more package tours and are also prepared to plan a larger budget for their holidays.

Average prices are approximately 15 per cent higher than in the pre-crisis year.

For the comparatively well-booked summer of 2022, average prices are even 23 percent higher.