Jim Armitage: Thomas Cook miracle makes Monarch’s woes hard to bear

Jim Armitage: For this summer’s Thomas Cook European bookings to be down only 3% after the litany of terrorism is a feat
Dan Kitwood/Getty
Jim Armitage @ArmitageJim27 September 2016

You know an industry’s in crisis when a company’s shares rise simply because it doesn’t issue a profit warning.

Such was the position on Tuesday of Thomas Cook, which — dare we dream? — may finally be throwing off its accident-prone reputation.

The speed at which Cook shifted holidays from terrorist-prone North Africa and Turkey to safer parts of the Med and the Americas has been a minor logistical miracle, and it is paying off.

For this summer’s European bookings to be down only 3% after the litany of terrorism is a feat, particularly when set beside Monarch’s apparent financial problems.

Indeed, for Monarch, there will be little solace in Cook’s numbers.

First, the tour operator is clearly making headway in its plan to sell more flights-only tickets out of the UK. For Cook, this is a risk-free no-brainer; it’s only filling the spare seats on package tour planes which are flying anyway. But for little rival airlines, it’s yet more competition.

Second, in one of its few black spots, Cook admits its German Condor airline arm is suffering from the huge numbers of European competitors, precisely of the sort hitting Monarch.

You have to wonder for how long Europe’s aviation market can continue so fragmented.

In the US, 70% of the domestic market is in the hands of four carriers. The result; sustainable businesses. In Europe, even the top five barely reach 50%. Below them are scores scrapping to survive. Lufthansa is about to snap up a big chunk of little Air Berlin, but that’s not enough. Major consolidation is needed.

Reds get a blue rinse

Here’s something to ponder when Jeremy Corbyn chunters on about corporate use of tax-avoiding offshore companies.

Corbyn is wildly supported by the Trots in the Momentum group and the socialist Left Futures blog. Both were largely founded by activist Jon Lansman.

Surprisingly, Companies House shows Lansman’s family owns a bunch of property developments, some of which have been funded by lenders based — you guessed it — offshore. These include Luxembourg-based Dragonfly Finance SARL and the snappily named Forum European Realty Income IV SCSP in the British Virgin Islands.

Jon’s developer son Ben says he only uses offshore lenders when conventional ones won’t lend on non-income producing properties, those without planning consent, or bridging finance. Anyone in the property game will sympathise with him, so why doesn’t he share the benefit of his offshore wisdom with his dad?

Failing that, perhaps Ben could write a blog on the benefits of offshore finance for Left Futures — after all, he’s on the board of the company that owns it.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in