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The travel company Thomas Cook reports for 2018 a fall in profits. Only the airlines behave surprisingly well: Condor and the three sister companies are achieving record results, despite considerable problems.
The planes of the daughter of Thomas Cook, Condor. © Thomas Cook
The Thomas Cook group ended its worst-ever exercise: tour operators recorded a significant drop in profits. On the other hand, airlines have managed to improve their performance despite difficult conditions.
In total, the Group recorded a pre-tax profit (EBIT) of € 283 million for its core business for the year ended September, down 23% year-on-year. The overall pre-tax profit decreased by 60 million euros compared to the previous year, it was still 49 million euros.
All missed forecasts
The group of trips is far behind its forecasts. During the summer, he had already reduced the expected profits twice, most recently to an EBIT of 312 million euros. Because of the missed objectives, the figures have already been presented two days before the balance sheet date.
CEO Peter Fankhauser spoke of "disappointing financial statements". The company canceled the annual dividend, the stock price fell 25%.
The weakness of the figures is due to the weakness of tour operators' activities this summer, said Fankhauser: "Due to the heat wave, fewer trips had been sold. The UK market was particularly hard hit – Thomas Cook lost 8 million euros to the tour operator, said Interim Chief Financial Officer Sten Daugaard.
Airlines make 37% more profits
The group's flying activity, to which the German Condor belongs, is quite different. "Our airlines have had a record year," said Daugaard. Operating profit rose 37% to 146 million euros.
In the airline sector, sales increased by 9.5% to 3.7 billion euros and the number of seats sold from 8.8% to 20.2 million. Condor was able to strengthen its position on the German market after the bankruptcy of Air Berlin, we learned.
Evolution of the operating profit (EBIT) of Thomas Cook (in pounds sterling). Graphic: © Thomas Cook
Airlines Thomas Cook have also managed to dissociate the poor performance of the organizers of the group, because they now sell them only 45% of their capacity. The rest will be occupied by third-party organizers or individual guests.
On the cost side, Condor and its counterparts in Great Britain, Scandinavia and Mallorca improved further over the past year: an additional saving of EUR 35 million was saved thanks to synergies between the four companies.
65 million euros in additional costs related to disruptions
The air transport division could have provided even better results without air traffic disruptions, Daugaard said. Two factors would have resulted in high additional costs: the bottlenecks of air traffic control and the late transfer of the old Air Berlin aircraft. Cook Airlines had to pay an additional 18 million euros
In total, the group even estimates that the airline 's disruption costs would rise to 155 million euros, or 65 million more than in the previous financial year. These include compensation to pbadengers, costs for charter flights and maintenance.
Less planned flight capacity
Thomas Cook plans for the coming year a consolidation of flight growth. Already in winter, less capacity had been created because six aircraft had been leased to the Canadian Air Transat, according to Fankhauser.
Even in the summer of 2019, fewer seats will be offered in the UK, well "even less", said the boss of Thomas Cook. In particular, they want to reduce the number of wet lease planes.
Read also: Condor wants more aircraft
Condor had previously announced that it would spend fewer orders from ACMI carriers in 2019 while welcoming more aircraft into its own fleet and into the new Thomas Cook Airlines Balearics and Thomas Cook Aviation companies. The bottom line is that the number of aircraft should remain the same.
From: pra
Date: 27.11.2018 – 13:46
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