The over-50s specialist travel and insurance firm said in a trading update that its travel business “continued to be affected” by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Saga also revealed plans for a restructure of its tour operations division, which includes combining operations at Saga Holidays with sister brand Titan Travel.
Saga said overall cruise bookings for full 2022/23 financial year had already reached 73% with an average per diem (per day) rate of £316 – up from £299 in the current year.
Euan Sutherland, Saga’s group chief executive, said: “With a stronger insurance business and progress being made in transforming our travel business, our turnaround strategy is working well.
“While Omicron has impacted travel bookings through December and January, our outlook for cruise in 2022/23 and beyond is positive.”
Saga said that its cruise business for the current financial year, which runs until 31 January, achieved a load factor of 68% and had been able to operate without interruption in the second half of the year “despite some challenges”.
The cruise operation is expected to report an underlying pre-tax loss of between £45 million and £50 million for the 2021/22 financial year.
