Thomas Cook Fresh Profit Warning After Tough Year news.sky.com

Shares in Thomas Cook have slumped by more than 30% after it issued its second profit warning in two months and suspended its dividend.

The travel operator said it had suffered a "disappointing year" with the UK market particularly hard hit as hot summer weather saw demand melt away.

Bookings for this winter are down 3%, the company added, partly blamed on "knock-on effects" from the heatwave.n autonomous and pre-programmed systems.
It has launched a shake-up including plans to improve returns from its network of UK high street outlets and cut back airline capacity next year.

Shares fell by more than 30% in early trading and are now down by three quarters for the year to date.

The warning also had an impact on shares of rival Tui, which fell 7%.

Thomas Cook's unscheduled statement comes just two months after a previous profit warning and two days before the company had been due to issue results for the year to the end of September.
The company now expects underlying operating profits of £250m, £58m lower than last year, pointing to a big fall in earnings for its tour operator business.
It said its bottom line was hit by the cost of discounting on last-minute deals.

Profits were also dragged lower by accounting write-downs on income from hotels plus disruption and restructuring costs.

Chief executive Peter Fankhauser said: "2018 was a disappointing year for Thomas Cook, despite achieving some important milestones in our strategy for transforming the business.

"After a good start to the year, we experienced a larger-than-anticipated decline in gross margin following the prolonged period of hot weather in our key summer trading period."
Mr Fankhauser said that within the tour operating business the UK was "particularly hard hit with very high levels of promotional activity coming on top of an already competitive market for holidays to Spain".