The Airtours owner’s revenues rose by 3% to £1.86 billion in the three months to December as Northern Europe improved and with the first contribution from its recent UK joint venture with the Co-op.

Operating losses rose to £91 million from £37 million due to its problems in the UK and higher fuel costs. Pre-tax losses rose to £151.7 million from £99.3 million.

Cook said West & East Europe divisions reported significantly increased losses because of ongoing disruption in North Africa.

The company needed an emergency cash injection before Christmas and has set a target of raising around £200 million by offloading what it describes as non-core assets.

The cash will be used to reduce its debts, which are estimated by analysts to be in excess of £1 billion.

As part of the process, Cook said today it put its  77.1 per cent shareholding in Thomas Cook (India) Limited up for sale though it added it will only sell the business if a compelling offer is received.

In the three months to 31 December 2011, free cash outflow was £739.6m (2011: £639.1m) which reflectedlower bookings as a result of planned capacity reductions and increased winter losses.

The firm added that December typically represents the seasonal cash low point for the group and cash has come into the business since then.

Cook added that the winter season remains subdued with economic concerns weighing on consumers' minds.

Summer season bookings are ahead of capacity in the UK and Central Europe despite the difficult market backdrop, but are slower than expected in Northern Europe and West and East Europe.

Sam Weihagen, chief executive, said he expects 2011/12 to be a challenging year given the economic backdrop and difficult trading environment, particularly in winter.

“The trends which we have seen in the first quarter are expected to continue for the rest of the first half, but summer trading is more encouraging.”

Shares rose 5% to 13.61p.

Tour operator Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) this morning kicked off its disposal programme with the £15 million sale of an office property in the Netherlands.

The company has set a target of raising around £200 million by offloading what it describes as non-core assets.

The cash will be used to reduce its debts, which are estimated by analysts to be in excess of £1 billion.

The company was almost permanently grounded last month before it received £100 million of emergency funding.

Its financial results earlier this month revealed the full extent of its woes as it announced massive losses and plans to axe 200 UK stores in the next two years.

The beleaguered travel group posted a loss of £398 million in the year to September after £428 million of write-downs and impairments.  

Shares in Cook have collapsed over the past year as the extent of its trading woes became clear.

In the last 12 months they have lost 92 per cent of their value, although the price was flying a little higher today after the disposal news.

At 8.30 am, they were up 0.09 pence at 15.09 pence, valuing the group at £133 million.

Beleaguered travel group Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) announced today it is close 200 UK stores over the next two years as huge write-downs sent it deep into the red.  

The heavily–indebted group posted a loss of £398 million in the year to  September after £428 million of write-downs and impairments.  Revenues rose 10% to £9.8 billion from £8.9 billion.

Underlying profits fell by £58 million to £304 million, as UK bookings were hit by the economic uncertainty while France suffered due to the impact of the Arab Spring on travel to North Africa.

Cook added that the first quarter had also got off to a slow start, though this a seasonally quieter time of the year for the business. Due a recent promotion early summer bookings for the UK were 8% ahead of prior year.   

Shares in Cook have collapsed over the past year as the extent of its trading woes became clear.

In November, the group warned it needed an £100 million emergency funding package to tide it over Christmas that saw the shares collapse by 75% in one day. 

Debt at the end of the year totalled £891 million, though since the year end it has sold its stake in a Spanish hotel chain for approximately £81 million. 

Chief executive Sam Weihagen said: “Customers have been very supportive in recent weeks and are continuing to book with Thomas Cook. Bookings outside the UK were broadly unaffected by news of our refinancing and in the UK bookings have recovered well. “

The store closures and disposal are part of a three year turnaround plan to generate a £110 million profits improvement.

“The plan is intended to optimise the UK airline, refocus product strategy, improve yield management, rationalise distribution and improve operational efficiency,” Cook said. The plan will cost £60 million.

The 200 UK stores to close will be where leases expire within the next 2 years.  Following its recent merger with the Co-op’s travel business its UK estate currently totals 1,300 stores.

The group faced a cash crunch after unrest in North Africa deterred UK, French and Russian holiday makers from booking holidays to Tunisia and Egypt.

Cook today confirmed its banks, Barclays, HSBC, RBS and UniCredit, had agreed to provide a new £200mln facility available until 30 April 2013, which will replace a £100mln short-term facility announced just six weeks ago.

The firm added it is also undertaking a strategic review of its businesses. Reports over the weekend said this could involve the loss of 1,000 jobs and closure of 200 of its 1,100 UK travel agents.

Sam Weihagen, group chief executive, said: "I am absolutely delighted that we have reached agreement and I would like to thank the banks for acting so swiftly.“

“For over 170 years Thomas Cook has provided customers across the world with fantastic travel experiences. Today they can look forward confidently to holidays with us for many years to come," he added.

Shares in Thomas Cook crashed by 75 per cent last Tuesday as it postponed its results and said it required more short-term funds to tide it over Christmas.

Broker Evolution downgraded the shares last week but moved them back up to neutral today as the extra funding gives the firm time to rejuvenate itself.

“The increased facility pushes current gross debt to about £1.5bn but, fortunately, all the bad press has come at a relative low-point in the booking cycle and the group has the funds and time to restore partner and consumer confidence in its brand and survival,” the broker said.

Longer-term, though, Evolution believes the group will have to adjust fundamentally its operating model, savagely cut costs, hope to benefit from more benign economic conditions, and wish for negligible external factors such as that currently being witnessed in Egypt.

All of these changes are “a tall order in a structurally flawed industry”, the broker concludes. Its price target is 35p.

Shares today rose by 33 per cent to 24.1p.

Embattled tour operator Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) lost more than half of its value in early trade after revealing that it is currently in talks with its lenders and will delay the release of its full year results.

The group said it entered discussions with its banks as a result of deterioration of trading in some areas of its business and in its cash position in the current quarter.

“While the company currently remains in compliance with its financing covenants, it also intends to seek agreement from its lending banks to adjustments that will improve its resilience if trading conditions remain difficult,” Thomas Cook said in a statement.

Consequently, Thomas Cook will not report its results for the full year to end September before the conclusion of these discussions.

The group added that its headline operating profits for the full year are expected to be broadly in line with its expectations.

Shares in Thomas Cook dipped 66 percent to trade at 14.05 pence on the back of the update, valuing the company at £123 million.

Only last month Thomas Cook amended the terms of its bank facilities and signed a short term facility to provide an additional £100 million of headroom this December – which is when the company usually reaches its low point in terms of cash reserves.

Analysts at Espírito Santo Investment Bank said last month that while the new banking facility provided near term relief, the group was “more indebted than ever”. 

Thomas Cook sacked its chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa in August following a series of profit warnings.

The business has been badly damaged by the so-called Arab Spring – a wave of unrest that has swept through the Middle East-north Africa region this year, reducing demand for tours to popular destinations such as Tunisia and Egypt.

Travel firm Thomas Cook Group (LON:TCG) announced this morning that it has reached an agreement to amend the terms of its existing bank facilities. The group has also signed a new short-term bank facility that will provide it with an additional £100 million of headroom this December – the point in the season when the firm usually reaches its low point in terms of cash available to it.

Thomas Cook’s existing credit facilities comprise a £150 million amortising term loan and a £850 million revolving credit facility that will mature in May 2014.

The firm said today that the terms have been amended to provide it with additional headroom. This means that adjusted net debt must be less than, or equal to, 4.5 times leverage EBITDAR (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation and restructuring costs) at the end of December 2011, and less than, or equal to, 4.25 leverage EBITDAR thereafter.

Thomas Cook also said that the financial convenants will continue to be tested at the end of each calendar quarter on a rolling 12-month basis.

“We are pleased to have the full support of our banking group in amending the financial covenants so as to provide greater financial flexibility, particularly around the seasonal cash low point at the end of December,” said Paul Hollingworth, the group’s chief financial officer.

Late last month, Thomas Cook’s issued a trading statement in which it said that underlying operating profit so far this year had been broadly in line with market expectations and that cash flow performance had been strong. However, the group said that its overall performance had been affected by its UK business and the disruption in the Middle East/North Africa region – particularly on its French market.

Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) and the retail travel arms of The Co-operative Group and Midlands Co-Operative Society have been given the go-ahead to merge their businesses by the Competition Commission. The combined group will become the country’s biggest retail travel operation.

The merger will result in a chain of more than 1,200 travel agents on the high street, with 780 of the stores provided by Thomas Cook, 100 by Midlands Co-operative and 360 by The Co-operative Travel 360.

In its statement, the Commission says it has concluded that the merger "will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in any markets in the UK, in particular for customers buying package holidays from high street travel agents.

"Therefore customers are unlikely to suffer from significantly higher prices or reduced choice as a result of the joint venture."

The commission had provisionally given the go-ahead for the joint venture in July. The deal between the three groups is now expected to be formally concluded by the end of the year.

Thomas Cook has been struggling badly recently, with poor trading and balance sheet worries undermining sentiment over the stock.  Certainly the tough economic climate has not helped, hitting as it has the group’s core customer base of young families with children.

The company trading woes have translated to the boardroom. Just a few days ago its head of UK retail operation, Ian Derbyshire, left the company.

Derbyshire’s departure followed the resignation, on August 3, of its chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa in the immediate wake of the company issuing its third profit warning in a year.

Their departure in turn followed the exit of three senior managers a few months ago. 

The Thomas Cook Group (LON:TCG) expects the civil unrest in Tunisia and Egypt to make a £20 million dent to its second quarter profits.

The company said that it continues to monitor the situation closely. It has been working to redirect its holiday programme to other destinations to help mitigate the negative financial impact.

However, on a positive note, Thomas Cook told investors that revenues were up 7 percent in the first quarter to £1.8 billion in an interim management statement this morning. Consequently it cut seasonal losses by 10 percent to £37.3 million.

Thomas Cook put the improved performance down to increasing volumes and a better product mix.

Importantly it reported a positive start to summer trading with particularly strong markets in Continental and Northern Europe.

"I am pleased to report that we made a good start to the financial year, achieving a 7 percent increase in first quarter revenues and a 10 percent reduction in the underlying loss from operations,” chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said.

"Throughout Continental Europe, the economic environment continues to support demand, which is reflected in our bookings and capacity plans.  In the UK, whilst the consumer outlook remains uncertain, we have seen an increase in summer bookings and the actions taken on costs will further strengthen the business.

Fontenla-Novoa adds: "The situation in Tunisia and Egypt is fast moving and our principal concern is for the wellbeing and safety of our customers.  

Douglas McNeill, equity analyst at Charles Stanley, described it as a ‘satisfactory statement’.

“The stock is down 10 pence since unrest broke out in north Africa, suggesting that the market is pricing in four more quarters of trouble - surely a worst case scenario,” McNeil said.

The group’s revenue for the 9 months to 30 June was £5.85 billion, up from £5.28 billion for the equivalent period of the previous year. Pre-tax losses increased to £286.4 million from £236.7 million a year ago.

Thomas Cook posted a loss of £49.3 million before exceptional items in the 9 months to June 2009, while the quarterly profit before exceptional items to June 2009 was at £61.4 million, improvements of 43.4% and 39.5% respectively.

Exceptional items for the 9 months to June amounted to £107.3 and were largely related to the costs associated with the MyTravel merger.

The group was also impacted by the deteriorating economic conditions, as well as the swine flu which caused the cancellation of a number of trips to Mexico, stripping Thomas Cook of some £12.6 million.

Just like rival TUI Travel (LSE: TT), which released its interim statement yesterday, Thomas Cook reported lower booking volumes for the upcoming winter, while selling prices are up as the group has been cutting the number of offered travel packages in favour of the more expensive ones.

 “Our strong performance in the year to date builds on our interim results and underpins our confidence that we can achieve our expectations for the full year,” said CEO Manny Fontenla-Nova.

Following the merger with MyTravel, Thomas Cook unveiled its strategy for the combined business in late 2007, targeting an operating profit of £480 million for 2010. Now the company says meeting that target next year is “not realistic” given the trying economic environment, which will hardly recover by next year.

The statement sent the company’s stock down 6% on the London Stock Exchange this morning.

The travel operator said revenues in the six months to 31 March 2009 climbed 12.6% to £3.484 billion, helped somewhat by favourable currency movements.  The season loss from operations improved by 15.6% to £110.9 million, including a £3.9 million hit from adverse currency movements.   The interim dividend was hiked by 15% to 3.75 pence.  Loss before tax did increase by 20% to £280.4 million, and loss per share climbed 42.5% to 15.1 pence.  Net debt stood at just over £1 billion.

Manny Fontenla-Novoa, Chief Executive of Thomas Cook said:

“Despite the tough economic conditions, current trading for the Summer 09 season is robust with selling prices up and margins in line with our expectations. Customers continue to book nearer to departure, however, load factors remain strong with bookings trending towards our capacity levels.  

'We remain confident that we are on track to meet our full year expectations. Our confidence is underpinned by our proven ability to manage capacity and costs as well as driving synergy improvements and implementing contingency measures as appropriate. As a result, we are increasing our interim dividend by 15%.”

Shares in Thomas Cook slipped slightly in early trading, but are up approximately 100% from their low in Q4 2008.