Travel and tour operator Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) downplayed the impact of recent geopolitical events on its business as it made its first annual profit for five years.
It has been a difficult year, with recent geopolitical events, including the terror attacks in Paris and Tunisia and the bombing of a Russian passenger jet over Egypt, causing turmoil in the tourism sector.
Thomas Cook's flight programme to Tunisia has been suspended since the attack in June, while flights to Sharm-El-Sheikh airport in Egypt were suspended at the beginning of the month following UK Foreign Office advice, with around 1,700 customers flown out of the region.
In the group’s full-year results, Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of Thomas Cook said it had been one of "considerable challenges" for the firm.
“Our business is inevitably impacted from time to time by geopolitical events,” he said, but, despite the fragile geopolitical environment, “our business has continued to grow”.
The tour operator swung to a pre-tax profit of £50mln in the year to September, having made a loss of £114mln the year before.
It is the first time the company has registered a profit since 2010.
Fankhauser said: “Despite turbulence in some of our destinations, the underlying business performed in line with our plans at the start of the year, demonstrating its greater resilience.”
The group said demand for holidays to own-brand hotels and other new products increased over the year, while sales for the winter season are 1% ahead of last year, despite the disruptions.
"The new financial year has got off to a good start with encouraging trading overall for Winter 2015/16 and Summer 2016,” Fankhauser added.
Thomas Cook announced it will reintroduce a dividend in 2016, having axed it in 2010, with a pay-out expected early 2017 depending on full-year profits