Europe's second-largest travel firm, Thomas Cook, said today it expected full-year core profit to improve over last year after posting a wider second-quarter loss.
The package-tour operator said its second-quarter loss came in at €136 versus a loss of €96.95 million a year ago, inflated by one-off items.
Sales fell 19 per cent to €1.23 billion from €1.52 billion in the quarter ending on April 30th.
Chief executive Mr Stefan Pichler told reporters he expected sales to drop by 4 to 5 per cent this fiscal year, though he said forward bookings were jumping.
"In the last two weeks the [bookings] trend tended more to be positive 20 per cent," he said.
The company plans further cost cuts and intends to take four or five more planes out of its tourism business, he said.
He reiterated the company was not in talks to merge with Kuoni. Thomas Cook is jointly owned by Deutsche Lufthansa and KarstadtQuelle.
