Thomas Cook takes £70m profits hit from ash cloud
Iceland's volcanic ash cloud cost Thomas Cook £70 million, the holiday group said today.
It said hotel fees and repatriating stranded customers set it back £50 million while £20 million was lost from Britons who decided not to rebook their holiday after being grounded.
The figures will hit the group's bottom line later in the year. During the six months to April — a traditionally loss-making period for travel firms — it managed to narrow its pre-tax loss to £252 million, from £309 million the year before.
Chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said: "Our flexible business model and the importance of the holiday to the consumer stands us in good stead."
Tour operators traditionally make a loss in the half year which does not include the summer. Europe has been dogged for weeks by repeated shutdowns of air traffic since an erupting volcano under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier in Iceland started spewing ash in April.
The biggest closure lasted for almost a week from April 15, causing about 100,000 flight cancellations and stranding millions of passengers.
On Tuesday, Europe's biggest tour operator TUI Travel said the disruption had cost it £90 million to date and low-cost airline easyJet said it would it full-year profit by between £50 million and £75 million.
Thomas Cook said, excluding the estimated impact of the volcanic ash cloud, it remained confident of meeting expectations for the full-year. Shares have fallen by 10% since the disruption began.
