Summer bookings at Budget Travel are up 21 per cent on this time last year and 96 per cent of the group's travel programme has already been sold, parent company Thomson Travel has stated.

In its statement on current trading, Thomson says that Budget's 1998/1999 winter sales were 54 per cent ahead of the previous year, while winter 1999/2000 bookings are currently 40 per cent ahead of last year. The comments about Budget, however, are in stark contrast with Thomson's travel business in the UK where the company's chief executive, Mr Paul Brett, resigned suddenly yesterday after 10 years in the job following a profits warning.

Mr Brett, who has been with Thomson - the UK's largest package holiday company - for 20 years, resigned after a unanimous decision by the board that new leadership was necessary.

The company, which floated last year after 30 years as part of Canada's Thomson Corporation, said it had reviewed its leadership needs "in view of the significant changes taking place in the travel industry".

The package holiday business has been consolidating rapidly and Thomson's market leadership position in the UK was threatened after Airtours, the second-largest tour operator, launched a hostile takeover bid for First Choice, its smaller rival.

Shares in Thomson, which floated at 170p sterling in May 1998, lost 11 per cent of their value yesterday after the company warned that pre-tax profits in the year to December would be lower than last year's £123-million sterling.