Travel group TUI reports that EBIT in its markets and airline segment fell to €217 million ($253 million) in its fiscal 2025, down from €304 million a year earlier. The German-based group says that it saw higher revenue because of stronger pricing, while booking volumes were flat year on year. Yet operating profit declined as a result of "the competitive market environment and investments in transformation and growth." TUI's market and airlines segment comprises a range of European tour operators and airline fleets stationed across Belgium, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK. In the northern region (UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark), the segment's underlying EBIT declined to €140 million from €165 million, while in the central region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland) it fell to €98 million from €128 million. In the western region of France, Belgium and the Netherlands, underlying EBIT swung to a €21 million EBIT loss from €10 million profit last year. TUI says it is investing in IT systems, new sales channels and the ability to offer consumers more products with greater flexibility and combination options, something it terms a "curated marketplace". It states: "TUI is adapting to changing customer behaviour. We are increasingly focusing on dynamically packaged products. This gives customers more choice and the high level of protection offered by a package tour". The travel group cites an 11% increase in dynamically created travel packages in 2025. Across the group, which additionally spans hotels, resorts and cruise ships, underlying EBIT grew to €1.46 billion, from €1.29 billion last year. Revenue meanwhile grew at a slower rate, to €24.2 billion, from €23.2 billion.

Air Transat reached a tentative labour agreement with its pilots on 9 December, averting the threat of a strike and allowing it to return to normal operations. The Air Line Pilots Association representing Transat's pilot group had issued a 72-hour strike notice on 7 December, and while negotiations continued, the airline started suspending flights between 8-9 December. The union says that more than 750 pilots will vote on it "in the coming days". ALPA adds that Transat pilot leaders "believe this contract goes a long way toward recognising today's aviation industry standards and delivers on the goals of better job security, enhanced compensation, and more flexible schedules to allow for a better work-life balance". "We are pleased to have finally reached a tentative agreement with the union representing our pilots, marking a complete overhaul of their collective agreement. We would have greatly preferred to avoid the threat of a strike, which forced us to modify our operations," says Transat president and chief executive Annick Guerard.

IATA is blaming "poorly designed mandates" in the UK and European Union for a projected slowing in the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in 2026. The industry body says that this year SAF output is expected to nearly double to 1.9 million tonnes compared to 2024, but next year growth will slow with capacity only set to reach 2.4 million tonnes. Further, it adds that all SAF production in 2025 equates to only 0.6% of total fuel consumption, while airlines carried an additional $3.6 billion of cost due to the alternative fuel's premium pricing. It says that the ReFuelEU Aviation mandate pushed up SAF costs due to limited production capacity and "oligopolistic supply chains", while the UK's SAF mandate has caused price spikes. "If the goal of SAF mandates was to slow progress and increase prices, policymakers knocked it out of the park. But if the objective is to increase SAF production to further the decarbonization of aviation, then they need to learn from failure and work with the airline industry to design incentives that will work," states IATA director general Willie Walsh. The organisation has called on both the UK and EU to not repeat the policy missteps of the current mandates when their eSAF mandates are implemented in 2028 and 2030, respectively. Senior vice-president for sustainability and chief economist Marie Owens Thomsen called on regulators to "course-correct" and ensure the long-term viability of SAF production so that prices can come down. "Mandates have done just the opposite, and it is outrageous to repeat the same mistakes with e-SAF mandates," she says.