Shares in holiday firm MyTravel Group slumped 24 per cent yesterday after the tour operator warned investors of lower profits this year as  holidaymakers held off booking in the hope of late bargains.

The company, which changed its name from Airtours in February, reported a fall in demand for holidays since Easter, which has left the group with one million summer 2002 holidays still to sell at a discount.

The company has several operations in the Republic.

MyTravel's warning put the skids under other tour operators, including Europe's largest Preussag. Europe's number two, Thomas Cook, is also set to cut holidays because of weak demand.

A warning of terrorist threats to the United States and western Europe by President George Bush and the closure of New York's Brooklyn Bridge for an hour added to concerns for tour operators, with holidaymakers seen likely to delay bookings further.

The events of September 11th left MyTravel nursing a loss for the first quarter to end-December that was £58.8 million sterling (€92.56 million) more than it had expected, the company said.

For the first half to end-March, MyTravel reported an operating loss before exceptionals of £122.3 million, largely in line with market expectations, versus a loss of £77.4 million a year earlier. The pre-tax loss widened to £157 million from £97.6 million.

The company had expected to recover the first quarter's additional £58.8 million loss across its remaining three financial quarters. But it no longer expects to meet that goal now that bookings in the industry have dropped off since March, chief executive Mr Tim Byrne said.

Mr Byrne said the company was still left with one million summer holidays that would have to be sold at a discount of about £25 per holiday.

In the troubled German holiday market, MyTravel's FTi cut its underlying operating loss to £18.3 million from £25 million and expects to break even in 2002/2003.