The German parent of Ireland's largest tour operator, Budget Travel, has reported a doubling of operating profits last year.

TUI, Europe's biggest tourism group, posted earnings before tax and amortisation (EBTA), adjusted for exceptional items, of €489.5 million yesterday.

This exceeded even the highest estimate of €460 million among analysts and the company's own forecast of "at least €420 million".

TUI, which acquired Budget with its acquisition of the British Thomson Holidays group, said an extra 170,000 holidaymakers travelled with it worldwide last year.

The group also issued a bullish outlook for the current year. Budget has already announced that sales in the key months of January and February were 18 per cent higher than in 2004. As a result, it has added 10,000 seats to its charter services for the summer.

TUI chief executive Michael Frenzel said the tourism division may again achieve double-digit percentage EBTA growth this year. Earlier this month, he said that he expected tourism revenues to rise 4-5 per cent, or more, in the tourism year to October 31st.

"The TUI figures were much better than expected. Performance in the logistics business was particularly pleasing," said LRP analyst Per Ola Hellgren.

Group sales rose 7.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis to €18.05 billion. Tourism sales rose 3.6 per cent, indicating improving prices, and EBTA jumped 75 per cent to €362.4 million, reflecting restructuring, better capacity management and increased occupancy rates at its 280 hotels.

TUI said that profit at its shipping division, its second major business, rose €17 million to €279 million.

Group net income excluding minorities rose to €488.3 million from €275 million in 2003. Net debt fell about €600 million to €3.25 billion by the end of 2004. - (Additional reporting, Reuters)