Thomas Cook makes ‘tangible strategic progress’ as pre-tax loss narrows to £303m

Travel company Thomas Cook Group plc has managed to cut its half-year losses by £11m.

The London-headquartered company made a loss before tax of £303m in the six months to March 31 2018, an improvement against the £314m loss reported during the same period in 2016/17.

Thomas Cook said the figure was helped by an £8m reduction in net finance charges.

Revenues for the period climbed 7.8% to £3.2bn, up from just under £3bn the year previous.

Growth in sales was driven by the group’s expanding footprint in Egypt and the launch of additional long-haul services.

The group’s net debt also grew during the half-year. At the end of March the figure stood at £886m owed.

Looking ahead to the coming months, Thomas Cook Group said it had so far experienced strong demand for flights in its Summer 2018 schedule across “all segments”, with bookings up 13%.

Peter Fankhauser, chief executive at Thomas Cook, said: “Thomas Cook has had a good first six months of the year, delivering improved financial results combined with tangible strategic progress.

“The work we’ve done in the past two years to improve customers’ experience of our flights and our holidays is bearing fruit with revenue growth of 5 per cent, and a positive booking position for the summer.”

He added: “The improvements in customer satisfaction have come from our focus on fewer, better hotels and our holiday programme for Summer 2018 is in great shape.”

Thomas Cook launched a new £150m hotel fund earlier this year, with five seed assets and three schemes currently in development.

Speaking further, Mr Frankhauser said: “The launch of our hotel investment fund with LMEY in March will allow us to accelerate the growth of our own-brand hotel portfolio where we can deliver better quality and higher returns.

“With three new hotel projects underway in as many months, in addition to our first Casa Cook in Spain, we’re excited about the opportunity the fund provides.”