The UK travel operator Airtours - which owns a number of holiday companies as well as the High Street travel agents Going Places and Travelworld - moved into profit during the last quarter, and gave an upbeat statement about future prospects.

The company said pre-tax profits for the three months to 30 June were �4.2m, in comparison to a loss of �2m in the same period last year.

Summer bookings were up 12% in the UK, while group bookings for the winter are also up 9%.

The company's chairman David Crossland said he was "extremely pleased" with the results.

"It is evident that the changes introduced by the new management team are delivering significant improvements in profits", he said.

German market

Many investors were interested to see how the firm was dealing with its German subsidiary FTi, which it bought in September last year.

Airtours said summer bookings at FTi were down 51% compared to last year, but added it had managed to cut operating losses.

And Mr Crossman said the cut in bookings at the German firm was a good sign.

"(FTi) was a loss-making company that had expanded too fast and was making a loss on every customer. We therefore want to take down capacity so that everyone we take on holiday is profitable to us".

Airtours said FTi was now experiencing "significantly improved selling prices and load factors".

Elsewhere summer sales at its Scandinavia and Dutch businesses were up 2%.

It also said its North American charter operations were still on track to hit profitability despite what it described as "poor economic conditions" in the US.

E-strategy

Airtours also revealed its 'mytravel' website is close to being launched.

The website will enable customers to buy holidays from across the whole range of Airtours companies.

The company said the websites for the UK and Scandinavia are currently being tested, but are due for launching later this year.

Airtours said it had spent �3.4m in the last quarter developing the site, taking its total spending to �9.5m for the year so far.