Report by John Lavabre
LASTMINUTE.COM is to form a reciprocal commercial agreement
with on-line travel agency Thomascook.com allowing consumers to buy holidays in
advance.
From May 1, visitors to Lastminute will be directed to a joint
Web site if they wish to buy a holiday more than six weeks in advance of
departure. In return, Lastminute will provide its established range of gifts,
theatre tickets, restaurant bookings and other goods and services to
Thmoascook.com customers.
The new agreement was announced today as Lastminute released
its results for the third quarter ending December 31, 2000.
They show the company’s net loss has doubled to £11.71
million compared to the third quarter last year. Total transaction value has
increased five-fold to £20.2 million, while gross profit rose to £2.8 million.
Chairman Allan Leighton said he was confident the company
will become profitable but admitted there was still “a lot to do”.