THE MYTRAVEL Group has posted a pre-tax loss of £617.9
million in its half-year results.
The group blamed the war in Iraq and uncertainty about
the company’s finances for its poor trading performance during the six months
ended March 31, 2003. Underlying UK
trading was £87.1 million worse than a year ago on a capacity cut of 12%.
Meanwhile, the group has agreed a £1.13 billion
refinancing deal with its banks up to May 2006 and is confident it will soon
complete the refinancing of its convertible bonds.
Chief executive Peter McHugh is relatively upbeat
about the rest of the summer. “Recent booking trends are generally
encouraging, however we cannot yet predict whether this trend will continue or
how the peak summer period will unfold.
If current trends do continue, then I expect the
summer performance to be better than last year. However, we do not expect to
fully recover the operating losses suffered in the first half.”