We didn't want to just bend with the wind just because people are shouting loudly about it

Dinesh Dhamija Ebookers chief executive

So the company is changing its name - to ebookers.

It is not the first. In April, the owner of internet.com - perhaps the most emblematic web address ever - changed its company name to "INTMedia Group Inc".

And in November UK online bookmaker Sportingbet.com became simply Sportingbet.

"We've had pressure for months - since going public in April - from our advisers," Ebookers chief executive Dinesh Dhamija told BBC News Online.

"They told us people weren't buying our shares because dot.coms had got a bad name."

Blowing in the wind

But Mr Dhamija said he resisted the change until the company went cash flow positive - which it achieved in the last quarter from July to September.

"We didn't want to just bend with the wind, to the right now and to the left a few weeks later, just because people are shouting loudly about it," he said.

Ebookers did indeed achieve the rare - in fact, practically unique - distinction among online companies of actually turning in a profit for the third quarter of the year.

Before any additional charges, exceptional costs, goodwill, tax, stock compensation costs or interest on its debts, the company was �200,000 in the black between July and September.

Distinguishing feature

After costs but before tax, losses at Ebookers fell to �2.6m over the quarter, compared with �8.6m a year before.

The group claims that what distinguishes it from other online outfits is that its managers come from the traditional travel sales world.

The company is a spinoff from real-world agency Flightbookers, and earns half its sales from telephone and shop-based bookings.

Offline advertising, Mr Dhamija said, is cheaper and more effective than its online equivalent, and often customers start as phone or face-to-face customers and then move to the more cost-effective online environment.

Heading east

But like its peers, it is suffering from the travel slowdown since 11 September, with 20% of its staff in 11 European offices facing the push.

The profit is unlikely to be repeated in the final quarter of the year or the first quarter of 2002, Mr Dhamija told BBC News Online.

"September is the largest booking period for us, and of course we got hit (by the slump)," he said.

Bookings fell 25% in the rest of September and then fell further after the attacks on Afghanistan began on 7 October.

Ebookers is shifting much of its back-office operations to India. "It's a defensive mechanism," he said. "In case something happens again."