Thomas Cook reports jump in summer 17 bookings

Thomas Cook bookings are up 11% year on year with average selling prices up 1%.

The group disclosed the figures as part of a trading update today.

Its summer 2017 programme is now 91% sold, 2% more than at this time last year.

"Sales have been driven by strong customer demand for our improved holiday and flight offering to a wide range of destinations including Greece, Bulgaria and Cyprus, together with long-haul destinations such as the USA," said the update.

It said demand for Turkey and Egypt has also continued to rise.

Meanwhile bookings to Spain remain broadly in line with last year, reflecting a ‘very competitive market and a strong comparative period’.

In the UK, overall bookings are 8% higher with pricing in line with last year, which Cook said reflected good seat-only sales in the airline.

It said charter risk package holiday bookings are up by 2%, while pricing is up by 7%.

"As highlighted previously, a combination of higher hotel cost inflation and increased air capacity has intensified competition to Spain, leading us to limit volume growth in order to help mitigate the significant margin pressures," it said.

"At the same time, our strategy to grow sales of differentiated holidays, especially holidays to our own-brand hotels, is helping to strengthen our competitive position over the medium term."

Its winter 2017/18 programme is 37% sold, consistent with the same period last year.

Overall group winter bookings are up 3%, supported mainly by a recovery in demand for Turkey and North Africa, with average selling prices up 2%.

In the UK, winter bookings are up 5%, against a strong comparative period, with pricing up 3%.

Looking forward to summer 2018, Thomas Cook said it was pleased with the very early start to the programme.

"Overall bookings and pricing are ahead of last year, reflecting a good performance from the UK and Northern Europe in particular," it said.

Chief executive Peter Fankhauser added: "The last month has been operationally challenging as our teams took care of the thousands of customers in the Caribbean and Florida impacted by Hurricane Irma. I am proud of how fast we acted in the wake of Irma to support our customers, and offer them alternative destinations for their winter sun.

"I’m also delighted about the progress we’ve made strategically. The alliance with Expedia announced earlier this month will allow us to cut the complexity in our business and focus on our core holiday offering. In addition, our new partnership with hotel property investor LMEY, announced this morning, gives us a stake in the popular German premium club brand Aldiana, and a platform from which to accelerate the growth of our own-brand hotels business."

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