Thomas Cook struggling to continue its dominance of the travel market

The world's oldest travel company, Thomas Cook, reported a statutory loss of £590 million for the twelve months to the end of September - worse than the £518 million loss recorded in the previous year.

Thomas Cook has felt the affects of the problems currently affecting the travel market and has reported widening annual losses due to reduced capacity and higher fuel costs.

Revenue fell to £9.5 billion from £9.8 billion in what the company described as a "difficult trading environment". Despite the loss, the company said the final quarter had been a "major improvement" on a year ago and added it was "optimistic about the future".

The 171-year-old firm is in the process of reorganising its business, and last year cut its aircraft fleet to 35 planes in total and sold off 149 stores.

Thomas Cook has struggled with high debt and the wider downturn in the global travel market. It got into particular difficulty last year when the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa affected its operations in Egypt and Tunisia.

West Europe revenues tumbled by 13.9% after capacity reductions in all markets, especially in France.

North American revenues meanwhile slumped 15.2%, hit by persistent market overcapacity, a very mild Canadian winter and the loss of a key premium hotel contract.

In May this year, the group secured a £1.4 billion refinancing package, giving it a further three years to repay its debts.

For more information on the travel market, see the latest research: Travel Market

Follow us on Twitter @CandMResearch