EBOOKERS.COM is to enter the interline market following its
acquisition of troubled agency Lawson International.
Ebookers will not reveal how much it paid for Lawson,
although it is understood to be around £250,000.
Around 15 jobs will be retained and the company will continue
to operate as Lawson International.
Ebookers chief executive officer Dinesh Dhamija said: “We
are extremely pleased to have found a unique opportunity to enter a very profitable
part of the travel market. The new operation will be the flagship of what we
hope to be a pan-European initiative.”
Lawson already has franchise agreements in Germany, France
and Switzerland and Dhamija hopes to expand it into all of the 11 countries
Ebookers operates in.
Lawson’s founder, Nick Lawson, has been bought back to run
the operation and will be assisted by former Flightbookers managing director
Firdaus Ruttonsha.
Lawson sold the company earlier this year to US-based Grand
Adventures Tour and Travel but it ceased trading after failing to renew its Air
Travel Organisers’ Licence last month (Travel Weekly, October 1).