TUI's New COO Takes the Helm as Eastern Mediterranean Bookings Crumble

TUI appoints Marco Ciomperlik as COO on May 1, 2026, amid a booking crisis, slashed profit forecast, and 27% share price drop driven by Gulf conflict disruptions.

The timing of Marco Ciomperlik's promotion could hardly be more challenging. On May 1, 2026, he steps into the newly created chief operating officer role at TUI, consolidating the "Holiday Experiences" and "Markets + Airline" divisions into a single board-level portfolio. He inherits a company in the midst of a booking crisis, a slashed profit forecast, and a share price that has lost over a quarter of its value since January.

The restructuring comes just days after TUI triggered a sharp sell-off with a profit warning on April 22. The group now expects adjusted EBIT for the current financial year to land between €1.1 billion and €1.4 billion, a far cry from the earlier guidance of seven to ten percent growth on the prior year's roughly €1.4 billion. Revenue guidance has been suspended entirely.

Two board members are exiting as part of the shake-up: David Schelp and Peter Krueger will leave on April 30. Chief executive Sebastian Ebel is pulling direct oversight of hotel and cruise joint ventures, as well as corporate strategy, into his own remit.

A €40 Million Geopolitical Shock

The root cause of the turmoil lies in the escalating conflict in the Persian Gulf region. TUI was forced to spend around €40 million in March alone on unscheduled repatriation flights and operational disruptions. The impact on customer behavior has been stark: bookings for summer 2026 are running seven percent below last year's level, with Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt hit hardest. Travelers are shifting their holidays to the western Mediterranean, leaving TUI's eastern routes exposed.

The stock closed Friday at €6.42 in one market and €6.49 in another, representing a near-15 percent weekly decline and a roughly 27 percent drop since the start of the year. The relative strength index sits at 27, deep in oversold territory, though no meaningful bounce has materialized.

Fuel Hedging Provides a Floor

One area where TUI has limited its exposure is energy costs. The group has hedged 83 percent of its jet fuel requirements for summer 2026 and 62 percent for the following winter. In the cruise division, more than 80 percent of energy costs are locked in. Bernstein Research notes that this is not a fuel-driven warning — the hedging program protects margins from oil price spikes triggered by the conflict.

Bernstein maintains a "Market-Perform" rating with a €9.20 price target, implying roughly 42 percent upside from current levels.

A Brighter Quarter Buried by Bad News

Despite the macro headwinds, there are pockets of operational improvement. The second quarter is tracking ahead of expectations, driven by restructuring in the airline division. TUI expects an operating profit of up to €25 million for the period, a stark turnaround from the triple-digit million loss recorded in the same quarter last year.

These gains have been completely overshadowed by the suspended revenue guidance. Investors will get a clearer picture on May 13, when TUI publishes its first-half results. For Ciomperlik, it will be his debut in front of analysts and shareholders — a test of whether the new structure can deliver under fire. The full-year forecast hinges on one fragile assumption: that the Middle East conflict does not escalate further.