Thomas Cook bookings strong

Thomas Cook bookings strong
Reuters - Thursday, April 10 08:52 am

LONDON (Reuters) - Thomas Cook , Europe's number two travel company, said on Thursday it was confident of meeting 2008 expectations as summer holiday bookings in its main markets remained strong despite worries about consumer spending.

Created last year from the tie up of Arcandor's travel unit and company MyTravel, Thomas Cook said it had fewer summer holidays left to sell compared with last year which was helping bolster prices and boost margins.

"We have less to sell right across the group... demand is still outstripping supply," Chief Executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa told reporters.

In the UK, which accounts for roughly 40 percent of its sales, it said had 19 percent fewer summer trips to sell than this time last year.

Prices were up 2 percent, helped by a 10 percent cut in capacity, while Scandinavian prices were up 8 percent with bookings up 12 percent. In mainland Europe, which includes its other key market Germany, prices were up 2 percent with bookings up 4 percent.

Having recently spent 250 million euros (200 million pounds) on a string of acquisitions in India and the Middle East, Fontenla-Novoa said the company was now in talks with Russian operators.

"We are in conversations with businesses in Russia at the moment," Fontenla-Novoa said on a conference call.

"We are focusing on a tour operator, mainly outbound out of Russia and in mainstream (holidays). We would like a business that is strong on distribution as well if possible," he added.

Shares in the company, which have risen almost 40 percent in the last 3 months, were up 0.7 percent in early trading.

The firm is expected to report a pretax profit of 346.6 million pounds in 2008, based on a Reuters Estimates poll of 11 investment banks.