BT getting back on track after the year from hell

Its full-year figures, due on Thursday, are expected to show the group returning to profit following last year's 134 million loss – its first for eight years and only the second in its 25 years since privatisation.

The group sunk into the red after it took a mammoth 1.9 billion writedown and suffered losses at its Global Services arm. Last year's annual results announcement was also overshadowed by plans to slash another 15,000 jobs, representing 10 per cent of its workforce.

A year on and the picture is less gloomy, with analysts pencilling in a move out of the red by 1.06bn for the year to 31 March after major restructuring efforts and an overhaul of the troubled global services division.

The group – which will also hold an investor day on Thursday, the first for chief executive Ian Livingston – said earlier this year that improvements within that business helped drive a 39 per cent leap in underlying pre-tax profits during its third quarter.

Tour operators TUI Travel and Thomas Cook will be watched closely for any update on the impact and likelihood of compensation from the volcanic ash cloud crisis when they provide half-year figures.

The two groups revealed they were losing up to 13m on a combined basis for each day the skies were closed due to the ash disruption.

TUI, which reports half-year figures on Tuesday, revealed the flight ban had cost it around 20m for the first four days, with around 5m to 6m each day thereafter.

Thomas Cook – reporting on Thursday – said it was suffering a hit of around 7m a day from the six-day flight ban, which came at a bad time for the industry after suffering a spending slump amid the recession.

However, recent trading updates from the firms before the ash cloud struck showed resilient demand for holidays and the market will be keen for news on the underlying trend in bookings.

Budget airline EasyJet expects to post results at the top end of expectations on Tuesday despite winter snow adding some 25m to losses. In late January the firm guided the market towards pre-tax losses of between 80m and 95m in the six months to 31 March.

In April, the Luton-based carrier said revenues were higher than hoped – helped by factors such as the industrial disputes at British Airways – although this was offset by the Europe-wide weather disruption. However, investors will be more focused on the outlook for the second half of the financial year as Iceland's volcanic ash cloud throws another spanner in the works.

The cost of the first closure of UK airspace cost the firm an estimated 50m, according to Panmure Gordon's Gert Zonneveld, with the airline estimating losses at around 5m a day.

Pubs company Enterprise Inns, which posts interim results on Tuesday, has seen improving conditions despite times of "unprecedented challenge" for the industry.

The group, which had around 7,400 pubs as of September last year, said in March that levels of support given to its struggling landlords was higher than a year ago although these costs are beginning to fall.

Enterprise Inns also took the chance to fire a broadside against the government – noting that 4.3m support for the industry announced by ministers "compared poorly" with the 20m it spent supporting licensees last year and was dwarfed by the 160m hike in beer duty imposed in the budget.

Annual figures on Thursday from Luminar – Britain's biggest nightclub operator – come after a difficult year for the group in which the recession hit demand from cash-strapped clubbers.

The company, which runs Oceana, Liquid and Lava & Ignite, also suffered an end-of-year blow after the severe adverse weather in January and February prevented club-goers from venturing out.

Luminar issued a profits warning in January, and the misery of the year just gone is expected to have seen underlying pre-tax profits slump to around 4m from 20.3m last year, according to Numis Securities.