TUI Travel sees Germany bookings surge -paper

(Corrects headline and first paragraph to say statements refer to London-listed TUI Travel (LSE: TT.L - news) , not Germany's TUI AG (Xetra: TUI1.DE - news) . Corrects second paragraph to clarify Clemens is chief executive of TUI Deutschland GmbH, not Germany chief at TUI AG)

BERLIN, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Travel and tourism group TUI Travel PLC expects higher profit in Germany in the current financial year ending in September after making strong gains in pre-Christmas holiday bookings, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

"The early-booking wave is reaching us sooner than in past years," Christian Clemens, chief executive of TUI Deutschland GmbH was quoted by the newspaper as saying in an interview to be published on Monday.

Clemens saw higher profit after double-digit percent gains in vacation bookings in the two weeks before Christmas compared with year-ago levels, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said.

TUI Deutschland GmbH is a subsidiary of TUI Travel PLC. German travel and tourism group TUI AG owns a 54.48 percent stake in London-listed TUI Travel.

Earlier this month, TUI AG reported a 2 percent increase in underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) for its total business in the 2012-13 year.

It said underlying EBITA should increase 6-12 percent in the current business year, while turnover would rise 2-4 percent from the 18.5 billion seen in 2012/13. (Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Anthony Barker)