Thomas Cook Group said its pretax loss for the six months to March 31, 2009 widened to Pounds 280.4 million but the tour operator is still confident of meeting expectations for the year and raised its dividend. The company’s pretax loss widened from Pounds 233.2 million a year earlier. However, revenue rose 12.6 per cent to Pounds 3.48 billion from Pounds 3.09 billion due to foreign-exchange translation effects and contributions from acquisitions. Seasonal loss from operations improved 15.6 per cent to Pounds 110.9 million (including adverse translation impact of Pounds 3.9 million).
The Group said it had five per cent fewer summer holidays left to offload than at this stage last year, while selling prices had increased and margins were in line with its expectations. Manny Fontenla-Novoa, Chief Executive, Thomas Cook Group PLC said, “We delivered a strong performance during the first half, which is the off-peak season in all our markets except Canada, with improvements in seasonal operating loss of 16 per cent. Our focus on mainstream holidays, and in particular medium haul, |