The over-50s specialist – which pulled away from the trade last year – said continued recovery of the global travel sector from the pandemic helped boost its revenue by 54% to more than £581 million in a recent trading update covering the year to 31 January.

The company saw an underlying profit last year with an outcome of £21.5 million against a loss of £6.7 million compared with the prior year. 

Saga’s travel arm – excluding cruises – saw a 10x revenue boost on the previous year to £108.4 million. Total booked revenue for 2023-24 had reached £136.6 million at 26 March 26.

"Customer feedback received to date in relation to our revamped travel offering has been incredibly positive and is reflected in our forward bookings," the company said. 

The group’s chief financial officer added: "The cruise business was affected by ongoing impacts from Covid-19, which led to the curtailing of two ocean cruises and higher cancellations on other departures.

"The travel business was impacted by lower demand and also experienced higher-than-normal cancellations, in part due to the operational issues impacting the industry."

Saga said the progress it has made in 2022-23 places the company in "good stead" as its enters 2023-24. 

Euan Sutherland, Saga Group chief executive, said: "Over the past year, through what continued to be a particularly challenging external backdrop, Saga made progress against its strategy while achieving significant revenue growth and returning to underlying profit.

"Our ocean cruise business continued to see strong customer demand and bookings for 2023/24 are on track to meet our targets. 

"In Travel, bookings are significantly ahead of the same point last year and that business will return to profit this year."