The Thomas Cook Group plans to double its operating profit to more than €620 million in the next three years.
At an investor strategy day today the group will announce its aims to improve performance in mainstream tour operating, make “significant” advances in independent travel and focus on travel-related financial services and emerging markets.
The new profit target will be achieved from group revenues of €13 billion by 2009/10. Of this, revenue from financial services is expected to increase from €215 million to €370 million while revenue from independent travel will grow to €3.3 billion from €2.2 billion.
The predicted growth will impact on the group’s mainstream business, which is expected to account for 72% of overall business by 2009/10, down from 80% currently.
Chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said: “Through the merger of Thomas Cook and MyTravel we have transformed both our businesses and the industry in general.
“In the last five months we have almost completed the integration, announced the merger of our German airline, Condor, with Air Berlin, and taken steps to align capacity with demand.
“In addition, we are announcing today that we expect to achieve not less than €200 million merger synergies – an increase of €60 million on our earlier prediction.
“Building on this strong foundation we are now entering a new and exciting phase of our development that will focus on increasing the strength of our mainstream business, developing a market-leading independent travel business, driving further growth through our unique travel-related financial services capability and taking advantage of the significant opportunities that emerging markets represent for us.”