Saga delivers upbeat projection with ‘minimal exposure’ to Middle East conflict

Saga believes the Middle East conflict will not knock it off course with its travel arm having “minimal exposure” to the region.

 

The over-50s travel and insurance company is looking ahead to the 2026-27 financial year “with confidence” after a 19% year on year rise in underlying pre-tax profit to £44.2 million in the past 12 months.

 

The overall profit before tax of £4.5 million included a “net negative of other exceptional items of £54.9 million” following a loss of more than £141 million the previous year.

 

Reiterating ambitions to achieve underlying pre-tax profit of at least £100 million by January 2023, the group indicated that strong forward bookings, particularly in ocean and river cruise, “give confidence” in further profitable growth.

 

Saga said: “In travel, we remain confident in driving continued success.

 

“While mindful of the current uncertainty in the Middle East, we have minimal exposure to the region, with no cruise itineraries and only limited holidays bookings to Egypt, Cyprus and Turkey. 

 

“We are 100% hedged against our current foreign exchange risk for both 2026-27 and 2027-28, and 100% and 75% hedged for oil commodity risk respectively.”

 

The group’s newly combined travel businesses delivered an “outstanding performance” with revenue up 11% to £504.1 million, with underlying pre-tax profit rising 37% to £87.2 million.

 

Saga’s two ship ocean cruise division saw profits rise by 38% to £67.3 million based on a 12% increase in revenue to £265.6 million.

 

River cruise saw pre-tax profit up 48% to £5.9 million with an 8% rise in revenue to £53.4 million, despite increased capacity from the launch of Spirit of the Moselle in July 2025.

 

The newest purpose-built river cruise ship, Spirit of the Moselle, “proved very popular with guests and reinforces the continued growth potential we see for our river cruise offering,” Saga noted.

 

The tour operating business, which includes the Saga Holidays and Titan brands, “also performed well” and reported an underlying pre-tax profit up 31% to £14 million alongside a 10% increase in revenue to £185.1 million as passenger numbers grew 11% to 60,800.

 

Forward bookings for 2026-27 at April 12 were ahead of the same point last year, with 51,600 passengers, compared with 51,500, and revenue up 4% to £165.9 million.

 

Saga has reintroduced a range of UK holidays this year, including university and college stays that provide an alternative to traditional hotels, particularly for solo travellers.

 

Bookings for 2027-28, across both cruise and holidays, "reflect a strong revenue position" that is 2.3% ahead of the same time last year.

 

Chief executive Mike Hazell said: “Having combined our cruise and holidays leadership teams in March 2025, we now have a more effective and cost-efficient travel business that is delivering a consistent customer experience across all of our travel products.

 

“Our ocean cruise holidays have continued to be extremely popular. Our smaller, purpose-built ocean cruise ships offer an experience uniquely tailored to our guests’ needs.

 

“We only depart from UK ports, and with every guest being provided a chauffeur service to and from their home, we remove the stress of flying, providing a seamless door to deck service. Onboard, our truly all-inclusive experience means that we give guests the peace of mind to enjoy their holiday without the fear of additional charges.

 

“The results show strong repeat rates, with 64% of our guests booking a further cruise with us. Our guests return because of the quality of their holidays with us and we see consistently high levels of customer satisfaction. Our transactional net promoter score reached an all-time end-of-year high of 83, compared with 82 last year.”

 

He described the past 12 months as being “transformational” year Saga with a restructuring of its insurance business.  

 

“Alongside this, we continued to see growth across all our travel businesses, driven in particular by the newly combined management team’s relentless focus on delivering differentiated travel experiences designed with the needs of our customers in mind.” Hazell added.

 

"The result was an excellent trading performance that drove growth across all our core businesses, and a strong financial performance.”