Holiday operator Airtours is expecting to turn in a strong set of full-year figures, despite seeing losses widen in the first quarter to more than £52 million.

The group reported an operating loss in the three months to December 31 of £52.3 million before exceptional costs and goodwill, compared with £46.1 million the year before.

Pre-tax losses for the quarter increased by £13 million to £63.4 million.

Chief executive Tim Byrne said they were due to the increased scale of the group's operations as well as the investment Airtours was putting into its My Travel e-commerce business.

This is set to go live in the UK in the summer, and could eventually target customers via the web, WAP phones and interactive television.

Mr Byrne said the first quarter losses were to be expected and pointed to an increase in bookings and improvements at its German division FTi Touristik as the reasons for the group's confidence.

Bookings in the UK were up by 14 per cent for winter 2000-2001 and nine per cent ahead for the coming summer holiday season.

In Scandinavia and the Netherlands, bookings for the respective periods were up by three per cent and four per cent, while in the US, cruise reservations at TSI in the peak January period were up 17 per cent.

These increases helped push winter group bookings by four per cent and lift bookings for the summer up by five per cent.

Group turnover rose to £1.1 billion in the first quarter, compared to £751.2 million last year.

In Germany, Mr Byrne said costs at FTi had been nailed down, and he added that the company's new chief executive George Eisenreich was making good progress in getting the business back on track.

Mr Eisenreich was appointed in January, four months after Airtours bought FTi. It issued a profits warning shortly after, following an in-depth look at FTi's books.

Mr Byrne said: "He's only been there a month but you can see the changes already."