MyTravel said UK winter bookings were down by 9.5% on last year

The owner of the Going Places chain of travel agents said UK winter trading remained "challenging".

However, MyTravel said its forecasts for the current financial year remained unchanged, with pre-tax profits expected to be between �40m-�45m.

It also still expects to reduce its UK losses from �27.4m in 2005 to �10m-�15m this year.

Looking ahead

MyTravel said trading for its northern Europe business was "encouraging" and that bookings were up for its North America division.

But the picture was not so good in the UK, it said.

"While overall UK trading has improved in recent weeks, it has still not fully recovered from the events of this summer," MyTravel said in a trading update.

"If these conditions persist there could be a delay beyond 2006/07 in achieving our UK target."

MyTravel said UK winter bookings were down 9.5% after it had reduced its UK winter holiday capacity by up to 10% and raised prices.

The company said it was reducing costs and aiming for a profit margin of 3.5% in the UK, but was relying on a return to normal levels of summer holiday bookings in order to meet its margin targets.