The boss of Thomas Cook has said he expects consumer confidence to bounce back quickly following the recent terrorist attacks in France and Egypt.
Along with other airlines Cook has suspended its programme to Sharm el Sheikh following the suspected bombing of a Russian charter airline at the end of October.
Fankhauser said the impact from Egypt had been limited.
“So far [there has not been] a big impact because we have cancelled our holidays until December and we don’t know exactly when we are going to open again,” he told journalists on a conference call.
Fankhauser described the ongoing effects of a Foreign Office ban on travel to Tunisia as in the “low digits” and would not be drawn on whether the company’s operations in Turkey would be hit by uncertainty in the region.
“Turkey is a very popular holiday destination and we are not going to speculate about what is [happening] in Turkey,” said Fankhauser
He added: “Turkey in winter is a very low demand destination.”
The terrorist attack in Paris is expected to have no material impact on Thomas Cook as the city is “not a real big part of our business”.
Despite continuing geo-political problems in a number of Cook’s destination, Fankhauser expects consumer demand for holidays to bounce back.
“What we see in our experience [of] large shocks, the customer they are shocked about these incidents of course and then we have a decline in bookings,” he said.
However, he added: “The past experience shows us that customer confidence [comes] back quite quickly.”
Fankhauser’s comments came after Thomas Cook announced its first post-tax profit for five years.