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Thomas Cook continue to stem losses
Thomas Cook is expected to record a pre and post tax profit at the end of the financial year for the first time in four years after a further improvement in its third quarter results.
The encouraging outlook comes despite a slight downturn in the number of UK bookings.
The operator reduced its earnings before tax losses in the nine months to July 31 from £193 million to £48 million while earnings before tax, interest and goodwill showed a £25 million deficit, down from £81 million on the corresponding period last year.
Consolidated sales increased 1.5% to £3.3 billion.
To the end of August, ten months into the financial year, 4.1% more customers had bought a leisure product through the group. Germany reported an increase in bookings of 9.1%, Western Europe by 0.2% while the UK recorded 0.7% fewer bookings.
The operator said it would continue to focus on reducing its operating cost after fuel accounted for a 1.7% increase in leisure travel expenses.
“The additional cost burden imposed by fuel prices amounted to around £60 million,” said Ludger Heuberg, a member of Thomson Cook’s management board responsible for finances.
“We were unable to fully offset this by the savings we made in expenses for other leisure travel services.”
But he said the rise in bookings and reduction in losses put the group in a position to report a substantial year-end profit.
“We are expecting this result despite high fuel prices and the fall in customer numbers due to the tsunami,” said Heuberg.
Meanwhile, Thomas Cook UK and Ireland managing director Manny Fontenla-Novoa has been appointed to the group’s management board.
Report by Steve Jones
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