Tunisia holidays still remain suspended for most markets, while airlines including Thomas Cook are meeting with the Department of Transport today to discuss flight bans to Sharm el-Sheikh. The company repeated guidance that it expected to restart dividend payments in early 2017.
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Beleaguered holiday firm Thomas Cook – heavily criticised following the deaths of two children from Wakefield on a holiday in Corfu – has posted its first annual bottom line profit for five years.
The Peterborough-based company went back into the black this year with profits after tax of £19 million.
It confirmed that it was on track to meet current analyst expectations for it to grow core earnings (EBIT) by 13 percent to around 350 million pounds for the current financial year, signalling it will be able to weather the cost of Egyptian holiday cancellations.
Profit after tax was 19 million pounds, compared to a loss of 115 million pounds previous year.
Like all travel operators, its shares were hit due to the terror attacks in Tunisia, as well as the Greek crisis.
Fankhauser said: ‘In my 30 years I’ve never experienced anything like it.
Thomas Cook has hailed 2015 as “a year of real progress” despite what it described as “turbulence in some of our destinations”.
REUTERS A worker changes the window display of Thomas Cook in Loughborough, England.
During the year Thomas Cook cut its debt mountain, which had reached almost a billion five years ago when it nearly toppled the group, down from £326 million to £139 million.
Mr Fankhauser said: “Customers have responded well to our increased focus on higher-quality hotels with our own-brand properties proving particularly popular, growing bookings by more than 40 per cent over the year”. Mr Fankhauser said: “We need to learn from the tragedy and do things differently”. Our new operating model, together with a renewed focus on our customers, marks a new phase of transformation for Thomas Cook, which we anticipate will deliver long-term, sustainable, profitable growth.
Performance was driven by good business in the United Kingdom, where underlying earnings rose 42% to £119m.
As part of its efforts to refocus on customers, the group is this month rolling out the launch of a 24-hour satisfaction promise for key hotels, with front line staff given greater powers to resolve complaints on the ground.
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“The new financial year has got off to a good start with encouraging trading overall for Winter 2015/16 and Summer 2016”, Fankhauser added.
