Thomson and First Choice To Be Phased Out

TUI Group has confirmed it is to phase out the Thomson and First Choice holiday brands as it seeks to bring its operational names under one roof.

The leisure and tourism giant said the reorganisation follows the merger of its UK and German entities last year.

It told investors the streamlining of their operations was on track to increase profits by between 10% and 15% this year.

Part of this is the plan to sell its British hotel booking website LateRooms - a move reported by Sky News last week .

TUI said on Wednesday it would dispose of LateRooms but would not set a definite timetable as to when exactly this would take place.

The company said that its travel offering would come under the TUI (LSE: TUI.L - news) name but it would take up to three years for the Thomson and First Choice names to disappear.

The pair catered for 5.2 million holidaymakers last year, with the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands and Greece among the most popular destinations.

The ditching of brands is part of the group's efforts to simplify its operation and comes hot on the heels of its announcement to combine its tour operating, hotel and cruise ship businesses into one unit.

Joint TUI chief executives Fritz Joussen and Peter Long insisted in a statement that they were pleased with the company's progress on restructuring.

They said: "Our post-merger integration process is ahead of our original plan. Our growth phase is gaining momentum."

The update on TUI's post-merger progress came as the group revealed a second-quarter underlying pre-tax loss of £120.5m, an improvement on the £144.9m loss announced for the same period last year.