Thomas Cook bookings up

THOMAS Cook UK bookings are slightly up on last year despite a fall in passenger numbers.

At the end of May bookings in the UK were 0.4% up on last year, while interim results for the six months to April 30 showed passenger numbers have dropped 2.2%.

Despite comparing unfavourably with Germany, where bookings were up 6.2% at the end of May and half-yearly passenger numbers were up 4%, Thomas Cook UK was said to have performed “significantly better” than the UK travel market as a whole.

As usual for winter, the group reported a loss for the half year of 302.6 million euros – an improvement of 46.8 million euros on the same period last year. Group turnover was up 1.5% to 2.4 billion euros.

Average holiday prices for the group fell 1.2% to 590 euros and average holiday durations were down 6.6% to 8.5 days.

The group also claimed cost-cutting measures were paying off. Higher aircraft fuel costs were compensated reduced spending on hotels, accommodation and aircraft leases.

The average number of staff working for the group in the period is 5.6% down on 2003.