Thomas Cook on Road to Recovery

Thomas Cook, the second-biggest German travel and tourism group, said on Wednesday that it had reduced losses in the first nine months of the current year as its restructuring program began to bear fruit. In the nine months ended July 31, Thomas Cook, which is a joint venture between retail giant KarstadtQuelle and the airline Lufthansa, booked pre-tax loss of 71.2 million euros ($87 million), compared with a loss of 286.7 million euros a year earlier. At operating level, the loss before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) narrowed to 36.9 million euros in the nine-month period from 119.9 million euros a year earlier. On the basis of these improvements, Thomas Cook said it expected to turn in a "substantial profit" for the whole year. Revenues in the period from November to July rose by 1.5 percent to 4.9 billion euros, Thomas Cook said. Customer numbers were up 0.5 percent at 7.3 million.