The travel company, which had its business model upended by Covid and the subsequent shutdown of global and domestic travel, described it as a major turnaround after significant losses. Its full year underlying EBITDA loss was $338 million.

The mid-point of its profit guidance ($185 million) would represent a 11.9 per cent improvement on its initial market guidance of $195 million to $225 million.

Its total transaction value, which is a measure of all transactions received including bookings for hotels, accommodation and car hire, topped $10 billion, which was more than double the $3.95 billion in the full year of 2021.

“TTV recovery has, to date, been fuelled by both an uplift in demand and higher than normal ticket prices linked to a lack of airline capacity, particularly on international routes,” the company said.

Ahead of its actual profit results to be revealed on August 25, managing director Graham Turner said after an “incredibly challenging period”, it was pleasing to return to monthly underlying EBITDA profitability in both corporate and leisure travel.

“The scale of our recovery exceeded our initial expectations and meant that we should now exceed our preliminary full year 2022 result target with early trading results pointing to a breakeven second half result and a healthy fourth quarter profit,” he said.

Turner expected ongoing challenges for the industry over the next year as new strains of Covid emerge. Airline capacity and staffing were also issues for the company after it was forced to stand down or sack 6000 workers when the virus shut down travel.

“We are seeing positive returns on our investment in new growth models with offerings like our independent agent channel growing rapidly and signs of a solid recovery in complementary brands like Travel Money, our foreign exchange business which is again open and profitable,” Turner said.

He said the company was gaining market share in the corporate sector.