It was one of the few stars of the FTSE 100 yesterday (29 September), its shares trading at times up by more than five per cent.

View the latest Thomas Cook Group plc share price from finance.google.com.
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This follows its latest trading update which showed strong current trading in the summer season and being on track to meet its expectations for the current financial year, ending September 30, 2008.

The company has benefited from increasing market share after the collapse of XL Leisure Group and keeping prices competitive.

In addition, its strategy of reducing capacity in the UK and Germany, with 24 per cent fewer holidays in the UK to sell than this time last year, has been instrumental in maintaining a robust business.

As well as summer 2008, forward holiday sales are also looking promising, according to Thomas Cook Group's CEO Manny Fontenla-Novoa.

He said: "Winter 2008-09 is also in line with our expectations and has started well, particularly in the UK.

In our Northern and Continental European businesses higher prices are offsetting the planned reduction in bookings.

"While early indicators for summer 2009 are encouraging, we continue to maximise our resilience for factors outside our control by flexing capacity in response to demand, managing our costs aggressively and hedging fuel and currency. In addition, the reduction in capacity as a result of the recent airline failures, including XL, has improve our outlook.

"We were quick to react when XL's customers were stranded, not only by assisting with the repatriation, but also by urging the UK Government to undertake an immediate review of consumer travel protection, update it and address the anomaly that seat-only customers are unprotected in the event an airline ceases trading."

Package holidays remain a core part of the group's strategy, and for the last 18 months it has focused on building a strong position in medium haul sector. This strategy is proving beneficial as the market for package holidays remains resilient and Thomas Cook has built a strong share of the medium haul segment.

"The flexibility in our business model combined with our portfolio of trusted brands and robust financial structure ensure that we are well positioned to take advantage of the reductions in capacity in our markets; align our products to customer needs; optimise merger synergies; and benefit from the strong performance of our recent acquisitions," added Manny. "This should drive further growth in margins and stand us in good stead for the future."

In addition, Thomas Cook has announced that it has withdrawn from discussions with Lufthansa and TUI Travel in relation to a potential merger of Condor, Germanwings and TUIfly Germany.

Related:
Material firm on a roll with fuel-saving Peterborough airline deal, 30 September 2008.