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MYTRAVEL'S WILSON: WE GOT IT WRONG

(25 October 2002)

MYTRAVEL has admitted for the first time it made capacity blunders last year.

UK and Ireland chief executive Duncan Wilson said: “Our estimations were wrong.”

The group has also conceded it mismanaged expectations leading to distrust in the City for which group chief executive Tim Byrne “paid the price”.

But in a candid interview at the Alpha Forum lunch during the ABTA Convention, Wilson said MyTravel had overestimated the number of holidaymakers likely to start travelling again after September 11.

By Christmas, Airtours Holidays was 300,000 bookings down on 2000. The situation was exacerbated by booking woes caused by the World Cup in June, Wilson added.

“We’ve had a dog of a year. We overestimated the number of people who would come back into the market,” he said.

 

John Lavabre