H2 of FY2026 should be better than H1: Mahesh Iyer, MD and CEO, Thomas Cook (India)

Time of India

6 days ago

With geopolitical conflicts and resultant flight diversions and cancellations impacting travel sentiment, adding to the US cracking down on student visa applicants, and a major air crash, the April to June quarter was a challenging period for the domestic travel industry.
However, travel sentiments are returning to normal and the second half of the year should end on a positive note,
Mahesh Iyer
, MD and CEO at Thomas Cook (India) told ET in an interview. Iyer has been overseeing operations at the company after Madhavan Menon retired as the chairman this February following a 25-year-stint. Menon is continuing as the company's non-executive chairman.
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'Some sectors are pointing to a slowdown, while others are signalling lower job creation, and even job cuts. In the near term, there could be some softness, but the long term travel story remains intact,' said Iyer. 'People have continuing aspirations to travel. There is money. You see the RBI's liquidity infusion and the corporate capex cycle. We expect H2 of fiscal year 2026 to be better than H1,' he said.
Thomas Cook (India) reported a consolidated income from operations of Rs 2,453 crore in the June quarter, growing 15% year-on-year. Consolidated net profit however stayed flat at about Rs 73.4 crore.
The company reported an increase in sales in its travel services business as well as leisure hospitality, which includes Sterling Holidays and Nature Trails, but forex revenue fell 7% on-year in the quarter.
'We showed resilience in all segments but the forex business didn't have a great quarter. We moved out of the Delhi airport and the student season was impacted. The Haj business was also 25% lower than last year,' said Iyer.
He noted strong potential in India's Tier II and III markets, which are currently growing by about 20-25%. 'The metros are also growing in double digits, but their rate of growth is about 10-12%. Given the improvement in regional connectivity, the growth rates can be much higher,' he added.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of travellers are preferring customised holidays, with visa-free or easy-visa destinations becoming the norm.
'More and more customers want to build their own packages, and we are building tech tools to help them pre-book and pre-plan their trips,' he said. 'The travel industry has no entry barriers and anyone with some technology tools can put together a product. But what's important is managing customer needs and expectations till the last point.'
Iyer said the company's domestic business was also hit last quarter due to travel disruptions in the key market of Kashmir, after the April 22
Pahalgam terror attack
.
'Our domestic versus international bookings mix is about 15% domestic and 85% international and that is likely to stay the same,' he said. 'India is a vast market, and we want to be relevant and keep building scale for certain markets such as Himachal Pradesh, Andamans and Goa besides Kashmir. If you spread yourself too thin, you don't get benefits like airline benefits, benefits of economies of scale.'
Besides its eponymous brand, the company's portfolio includes brands such as SOTC and SITA travels. It plans to add 1,000 keys in the next 18 months under its leisure hospitality brand
Sterling Holidays Resorts
. 'We are now at 59 properties and over the past 12-18 months, new properties have come up in Dehradun, Lansdowne, Amritsar, Coorg, Jaisalmer, Wayanad, Pench, Lonavala and Udaipur,' he added.