Thomas Cook feels the heat

THOMAS Cook has blamed the Iraq war, SARS and the unusually hot summer on a 9% fall in holidaymakers for the three months to July 31 compared to the same period last year.

Consolidated sales for May, June and July for the UK were 768.7 million euros, down from 869.9 million euros last year. For the group, consolidated sales were 2,368.1 million, compared to 2,679.3 million for the three months to July 31 2002.

The average price of a holiday fell by 5.4% while turnover declined by 11.6% compared to the same period in 2002.

Thomas Cook AG chief executive and chairman of the board Stefan Pichler said it had "probably put the worst behind us”, and expects profits for the remaining months of the year to be up on last year's level.

Winter bookings show a positive upward trend, with an increase of 5.4% over last year.