Thomas Cook: 11% more bookings than last year

Antalya has overtaken Palma as the top airport destination for Thomas Cook customers this year, with a 63% growth in Turkey bookings from the UK, ttgmedia.com reports.

Speaking during a trading update from Thomas Cook Group for the three months to June 30, chief executive Peter Fankhauser noted Turkey was the “standout” destination across its source markets.

Our bookings are well ahead of last year, up 11% across the group fuelled by strong growth to Eastern Med, Turkey and Greece and Egypt in North Africa, he added.

“Turkey is the standout destination, doing very well in all markets.

“In the UK there has been 63% growth in holiday bookings to Turkey – so much so that Antalya has overtaken Palma as our top destination airport this year.”

Cook has seen “good growth” to higher-margin destinations such as Turkey and Egypt, but admitted this had not been enough to fully offset the margin pressure that has generally impacted holidays to Spain to date.

Late bookings impacted by the very hot summer in Europe

Elsewhere Cook admitted its late bookings had been impacted by the very hot summer in Europe.

“I don’t think it will surprise any of you to hear that bookings have been impacted by the exceptionally warm weather in the last few months across our key European source markets,” Fankhauser pointed out.

“The heatwave means that customers have delayed their decisions about holidays.

“Across the markets there are more holidays left for tour operators to sell in the lates period.

“This has put pressure on prices, which restricts our ability to drive margins.

“We now expect full-year profit to be at the lower end of market expectations.”

He continued: “The weather does not change our outlook into next year and beyond and there is a good early booking trend for winter and next summer.

“We have not changed our guidance for 2019 and we are confident the changes will lead to further profitable growth in 2019 and beyond.”