The travel giant said it nearly halved losses in its first quarter to December 31 to 153m euros (£134m) below losses of 273.6m (£241.3m) for the last year.

It brought in 3.3 million customers in the quarter, up a million from a year ago, and said it had seen “significant” bookings with record holiday days sold online in both the UK and Germany.

Tui said the number of bookings in the last four weeks surpassed levels seen before the pandemic struck, up 5% for winter 2022-23 and up 10% for summer 2023, despite higher prices. Taller.

But the figures come after industry data on Monday showed Tui was overtaken by rival Jet2holidays to become the UK’s biggest tour operator for the first time.

Data released by the Civil Aviation Authority showed that Jet2holidays is licensed to offer package holidays to 5.9 million people in the year to the end of September.

That compares to Tui’s 5.3 million.

But Tui Chief Executive Sebastian Ebel called the bookings “encouraging” and reiterated that the company is ready to see a “significant” jump in underlying earnings over the full year.

He said: “Our strategy is clear: quality, cost discipline and winning market share.”

He added: “We agreed on a clear program at the end of the summer, which is currently being implemented.

“The rapid implementation of the strategy is having an effect.

“At the same time, we see an encouraging booking drive for the summer of 2023, especially in the last few weeks.

“Both factors strengthen our expectations: we want to significantly increase our underlying EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) in the full year 2023.”

Demand for holidays has so far risen despite rising prices and in the face of broader economic uncertainty, with recent figures from airlines EasyJet and Ryanair showing that tourists are still willing to spend on travel.