MyTravel Summer 2004 bookings down

Bookings for summer 2004 are currently behind last year’s figures, MyTravel revealed today. The company claimed however that its bookings were “in line with the rest of the industry” and that margins are better than for summer 2003. MyTravel conceded that it could not return to profitability next year, but was working towards “significant improvement” in 2004 and a return to profitability the year after. The UK was responsible for most of this year’s disastrous performance, with an operating loss of £325.4million compared to a profit of £24.1 million a year earlier. The company said this was partly because of “poor pricing decisions” made the year before which led to lower margins on its brochure holidays than had been expected. It also blamed “cost control lapses” in its airline operation as well as weaker than expected summer trading due to the Iraq war and good summer weather. Chief executive Peter McHugh commented: “It is clear that we had significantly under-estimated the extent of the UK restructuring issues and the scale of the turnaround required is larger than originally envisaged.” Other relevant stories: 11-Dec-03: TravelMole Interview: Philip Jansen, MyTravel 11-Dec-03: Is MyTravel on the rocks? 11-Dec-03: MyTravel Summer 2004 bookings down