Sam Weihagen
Chief Executive Officer
1 These are unaudited pro forma figures for the twelve months ended 30 September 2008. For a definition of how these figures have been compiled, please refer to Appendix 1 - Unaudited pro forma financial information. See the Statutory results for the eleven months to 30 September 2008. See Appendix 2 - Key performance indicators definitions.
Operational highlights
- We are monitoring capacity in the Northern European market to ensure we are able to achieve the prices and margins we expect
- The expansion of our medium haul programmes in Turkey, the Canaries and Egypt is proving right in current market conditions, as long haul becomes less popular
- Along with controlled distribution and yield management, our success depends on our strong brands and the quality of our products, as we are once again proving with the launch of Sunprime
- More than 45% of all bookings were made online and we are launching a new platform to improve our online offering still further
- Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia is, according to an independent survey, the most environmentally friendly Nordic airline with regard to CO2 emissions
Key facts
1.5m
passengers
21
retail outlets
9
aircraft
Our Northern European business has again delivered a record performance in the period under review, increasing the pro forma profit from operations by £12.7m year on year and maintaining an operating profit margin of around 9%.
The pro forma revenue for the twelve months to September 2008 increased by 20.5% to £971.6m. Adjusting for the impact of changes in the translation exchange rates, underlying revenue increased by 9%, reflecting both increased passenger numbers and improved selling prices. The benefit from increased selling prices and passenger numbers was, however, partially offset by increased fuel prices. However, underlying margin was still improved year on year. Changes in exchange rates also benefited the year on year performance.
Our Northern European businesses continue to lead the segments in terms of internet distribution. The proportion of our departed mass market passengers who booked on the internet was 45.6%, an increase of 18.8% on the prior year. The proportion of mass market passengers departing in the period who booked through our controlled distribution channels in Northern Europe (owned websites, shops and call centres) grew by 2.6% to 79.4%.