Thomas Cook seeing big Easter escape to the sun

The group reported interest from consumers wanting to make the most of Easter, the Royal Wedding and the first May bank holidays being so close together.

This means people can go on an 11-night holiday while taking only three days’ annual leave.

Ian Ailles, CEO of Mainstream Holidays, said: “We’ve put on more than 100,000 extra holidays over the Easter, Royal Wedding and first May bank holiday period as people are clearly keen to make the most of all these public days off being so close together.

“The places that people are really looking to get away to for some early summer sunshine – and making the most of the Easter, the Royal Wedding and the first May bank holiday – are places like Turkey and the Canaries.”

Conversely, Thomas Cook is cutting back its summer holiday programme from the UK amid a drop in demand as the economic uncertainty puts off holidaymakers.

The group has reduced its capacity for the summer season by 1 per cent, whereas it had planned a 3 per cent increase when it updated the market last month.

It also said its winter bookings from the UK were down by 5 per cent on last year after the crisis in Egypt and Tunisia caused bookings to be cancelled.

The group confirmed that recent uprisings in the region will wipe £20m from its profits in the first three months of 2011. Thomas Cook said it had taken a prudent approach to its holiday programme from the UK as a result of “fragile” consumer sentiment.

The group said 55 per cent of its UK summer holidays had now been sold, up 1 per cent on last year, but this is partly a result of the reduction in its programme.

It has also scaled back the increase in its capacity for winter bookings, which it now plans to increase by 1 per cent against a previously expected 4 per cent increase. The reduction in the number of winter bookings came after the turmoil in north Africa, which forced the group to cancel 110,000 holidays to Egypt and 40,000 holidays to Tunisia.

Thomas Cook expects the chaos to cost it £5m for organising additional flights to return holidaymakers to their homes and £15m in lost profit margin.

Although flights have now resumed to both destinations from most of its markets, the firm estimates its programme to these countries in the summer will be at 70 per cent of the level originally planned.