A “difficult market environment” saw Thomson’s customer numbers in the UK, Ireland, and Nordic countries fall 5.4% to 2.36 million in the third quarter.
The Northern Europe sector, which also includes Thomsonfly’s charter and scheduled flights and TUIfly Nordic, also saw turnover drop by 4.3% to €1.74 billion.
However, earnings were slightly up year-on-year at €235 million compared to €229 million in the third quarter of 2005.
In the UK, customer numbers fell 7.3% to 1.82 million. No other UK only figures were revealed.
Announcing its financial results today, parent company TUI AG said: “Restructuring measures initiated in 2005, however, had a positive impact by improving cost structures for example through commission cuts at third-party distribution.”
Overall, its shipping and tourism business increased total turnover by 8.3% to €6.74 billion.
The tourism division, which also includes business in the rest of Europe, saw turnover decline slightly by 2.4% to €5.16 billion, while shipping recorded an increase in turnover of 73% to €1.51 billion euros.
But earnings developed differently, with tourism closing on 2005 levels, but shipping recorded a considerable decline to €25 million, compared to €95 million in 2005.
This meant that overall, TUI’s third quarter earnings fell from €708 million in 2005 to €529 million in 2006.
Looking ahead, tourism turnover for the winter season is 5.8% up year-on-year at Group level, with customer numbers up 11.5% year-on-year.
By Bev Fearis
