Travel firm's £910m loss. TROUBLED tour operator MyTravel today unveiled wider-than-expected losses of £910.9 million, after another turbulent year for the former Airtours company.

MyTravel includes Going Places, with branches in York (at Monks Cross, Feasegate, Low Ousegate and Piccadilly), Bridlington, Knaresborough, Market Weighton, Ripon and Scarborough.

The figure for the 12 months to September 30 included exceptional items worth £472.7 million, mainly caused by a review of the value of MyTravel's assets.

At an operating level, losses of £358.3 million were far heavier than the £20.4 million seen a year earlier.

Chief executive Peter McHugh conceded the company had "significantly underestimated" the extent of the restructuring required for the UK business, but that significant progress had still been made towards underpinning the turnaround.

Mr McHugh said the company would be looking for an improvement in its performance in 2004, with a return to profitability expected in 2005.

Updating the market on current trading, Mr McHugh said winter bookings were in line with expectations.

During a troubled year MyTravel has secured new terms with its banks and bondholders in order to buy more time for its restructuring.

Today's losses of £910.9 million compare with a stock market valuation for the company of £44.5 million. Shares have fallen from 283.5p in 2002 to 9p.

Firm among fastest fifty

A NORTH YORKSHIRE firm is one of the fastest-growing British and Irish technology companies.

Harbrook Consultants, of Claro Court Business Centre, Harrogate, with a growth rate of 316 per cent, came joint 50th in the ranking of this year's national Technology Fast 50 winners, announced yesterday by Deloitte, the professional services firm.

Cambridge-based Active Hotels topped this year's national ranking, with a growth rate of 4,289 per cent. The company provides an online reservation service to the UK hotel industry and its global customers are independent and group-based hoteliers, travel agents as well as its network of distribution partners.

The Fast 50 tracks the growth rates of technology companies in the East, Midlands, South West & Wales, Scotland, the North and Ireland, culminating in today's national ranking.

Confusion over audit threshold

THE Government's "headline grabbing" audit threshold rise has left companies and auditors grasping at straws, says the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

The Government's announcement that it is raising the small company audit threshold from £1 million to £5.6 million to help cut red tape has left businesses and accountants facing a bureaucratic nightmare because there is a lack of real information, claims the association.

Andrew Harding, ACCA's executive director, complains that companies and accountants have only been told that there will be an announcement on the implementation details of the new threshold "by the end of 2003".

But the continuing lack of details has meant that "companies with turnovers of less than £5.6 million do not know whether they will need to have their current year's accounts audited before their financial year-ends, and small

business auditors and accountants are unaware of what approach they should take," he said.

Keep talking, even in tunnel

NEW technology promises to end the problem of mobile phone calls cut short when a train enters a tunnel.

Mobile operator Orange has conducted tests to find out how to provide a signal throughout the length of even the longest tunnel.

Its solution is to place a base station near the mouth, with an aerial aimed inside.

Tests in a 927-yard long tunnel on the East Coast main line show train passengers can continue talking throughout its length without interruption.

If successful, base stations will be built outside tunnels on the East Coast and West Coast main lines, and the Great Western route, which operates between London and south-west England and south Wales.

Updated: 13:03 Thursday, December 11, 2003