Shares in Thomas Cook fell 10.7% to 106.7p on the day its financial results were released, but had already returned to 114.7p today – and are significantly higher than at the start of 2017, when they were worth 87p.

The tour operator boss said it was understandable that city analysts had focussed on the profitability of the UK business, but insisted the company is currently in good shape.  

“We presented a good set of figures yesterday,” he said. ‘We accept that we are a UK company and that the UK is the focus of the analysis but I always say I don’t work for the share-price movement of the day; we are really, really on a good way.”

He described 2017 as a “milestone” year, in which Thomas Cook Group has grown its own-branded hotel collection by 11 hotels, and achieved strong profitability with its German-based airline Condor.

Fankhauser said Thomas Cook’s partnership with Expedia was the “first alliance of a tech company with a traditional tour operator” and that Thomas Cook is “going to digitise [its] business with the help of Expedia.”

“A lot of people have said, are you going to bed with the enemy? But I think that’s just jealousy,” he commented.

He also hailed the introduction of Thomas Cook’s 24-hour customer satisfaction promise, which guarantees guests will have their issues resolved or be moved to another hotel with 24 hours, and its ‘guaranteed room on arrival’ concepts, as huge successes.

“Of four million customers on the 24-hour customer satisfaction promise, how many vouchers had we actually had to give by the end of this season? Only three,” he revealed.