Lastminute cuts losses and stays cheerful

Lastminute has cut its losses, increased turnover and has high hopes that we will all be booking later and online.

The company's second quarter results show losses cut to £1.5m from £3.1m for the comparable period last year and total transactions up 94 per cent to £179m.

Lastminute chairman Alan Leighton said in a statement: "The indications are that there will be excess capacity in the market as we move towards the key summer quarter and that the demand for late travel will remain strong."

And he pointed out that in the industry as a whole, trading in April had been weak. This implied that people were putting off booking until later – probably in the hope of a bargain.

The company is looking for bargains itself; Leighton said that it was still looking for acquisitions.

If Leighton is right about excess capacity, there should certainly be bargains later on in the year as travel companies try to offload empty seats and beds.