Cruise and travel businesses drive Saga growth

Saga expects to report a year-on-year improvement in pre-tax profit and improved half-year guidance on the back of strong performances across its travel products.

The over-50s specialist also issued a positive outlook for 2026/27 in a trading update issued on Thursday for the six months to January 28.

The group’s preliminary results for the year ending January 31 are scheduled for Wednesday, April 15.

The company said ocean cruise continued to deliver “an excellent performance”, with a 93% load factor two percentage points ahead of prior year and a 10% increase in per diem to £394.

Pre-tax profit in river cruise also grew on the back of the launch of the Spirit of the Moselle vessel, with an 89% load factor in line with last year but a 7% increase in per diem to £349.

Saga’s holidays product is also expected to report a stronger underlying profit before tax than last year, with booked revenue growth of around 13% and passenger growth of 11%.

For the 2026/27 financial year, ocean cruise booked load factor is three percentage points up at 70%, with per diem up 13% at £445, while river cruise load factor is four percentage points up at 59% and per diem is 3% ahead at £367.

Booked revenue for holidays product is 5% ahead of the same point in the prior year, at £132 million, with a 1% increase in passenger numbers.

Mike Hazell, Saga Group chief executive, said: "This has been a period in which we traded ahead of expectations, particularly in Travel, delivered excellent financial results and continued to implement our strategic plans.

“Demand for our ocean and river cruises continued to grow and we saw a material increase in the number of customers taking our hotel and touring holidays.

“The group now expects to report an underlying profit before tax ahead of the prior year, and an improvement on the guidance we gave at the half year.”

He added: "Alongside this, we have made significant strategic progress. We have simplified our travel business under one management team, creating a single, more efficient and customer centric operation.

“At the same time, we successfully completed the sale of our insurance underwriting business and launched partnerships with Ageas in insurance broking and NatWest Boxed in money.

"As we look ahead, we expect the momentum to continue to build in our cruise and holidays businesses.”