The company, which is marketing exclusive ticket-plus-accommodation packages for next year's Games, today reported a pre-tax loss of £398 million ($622 million/€466 million) for the year to September 30, in spite of driving up revenues by 10 per cent to £9.8 billion ($15.1 billion/€11.7 billion). 

While group chief executive Sam Weihagen described the year as "very challenging", the loss was attributable mainly to exceptional charges of £573 million ($886 million/€682 million).

As well as "statutory" figures, the group published details of "underlying" performance, saying that management considered underlying profit from operations to give a "fairer" view of the year-on-year comparison of trading performance.

By this yardstick, operating profit dipped 16 per cent from £362 million ($560 million/€431 million) to £304 millionn ($470 million/€362 million).

Today's numbers were keenly awaited, after Thomas Cook had announced on November 22 that it was in talks with banks and would delay its full-year results.

Three days later, the company revealed it had agreed a new £200 million ($309 million/€238 million)bank facility and a further relaxation of financial covenants.

Thomas Cook said today that its customers had been "very supportive" in recent weeks.

While there had been "some initial adverse impact on bookings" as a result of the November 22 update, this was "predominantly in the UK".

The company had been "pleased with the reaction of customers and suppliers to the announcement of further significant financial support from our banking group" on November 25.

The first quarter had, however, got off to "a slow start".

Overall, the company expected "another challenging year given the economic backdrop".

It would "focus hard on strengthening the balance sheet and improving the performance of our UK business".

The 46 pages of detailed financial information that the group put out this morning were notable, so far as I could see, for the absence of one word: "Olympics".

A spokeswoman explained that, although Olympic packages had already gone on sale, they were not included in this year's figures.

I am further advised that they will account for a relatively small proportion of the passenger numbers handled by the company even next year.

At around 2pm GMT, the company's share price was down 2.7 per cent at 14.42p ($22.30/€17.15), giving the group a market capitalisation of just under £126 million ($195 million/€150 million).

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