Thomas Cook clips long-haul prices

THOMAS Cook has become the first company to cut the price of its long-haul flights, to as little as £66 one-way to help fill its planes.

The German company's airline, Condor, renamed New Condor after flying under the Thomas Cook flag, is the first and so far only European airline to offer budget prices on long-haul routes.

For as little as e99, passengers can fly to America, the Caribbean, Africa or Asia without having to buy a package holiday from the company, which plans to offer up to 30% of the seats on its planes on budget tickets.

Its short-haul and medium-haul destinations can be reached for as little as e29. The offers are open to British citizens but the flights originate or end in Germany.

Thomas Cook director Ralf Teckentrup said: 'The tour-operator market we have focused on up until now has been in decline over the past two years. Condor must therefore work hard to achieve a significantly improved market share in the seat-only sales segment. We need a new perspective.'

Plymouth-based regional airline Air Southwest expects to turn a profit in its first full-year of operations, owner Sutton Harbour Holdings said today.

The Alternative Investment Market-listed group started the airline last October after British Airways withdrew from Plymouth. Annual pre-tax profits for the group, which also has property interests, increased by 4% to 1.6m. The dividend is up 10% to 5.5p.