ebookers (LSE: EBR, Nasdaq: EBKR, Neuer
Markt: eb6), Europe`s No.1 online travel agency has announced that it has
changed its name from ebookers.com plc to ebookers plc.  The process of
rebranding will take place over the next few months.

 
Commenting on the renaming Dinesh Dhamija CEO said:

  “The reputation of the dot com industry has been scarred by high profile
failures, and examples of flawed business plans, poor customer fulfilment and
high losses.  In some cases this has been deserved, but in others it has not.

 
ebookers is one such company that does not warrant these negative
associations - especially having posted its first cash profit last financial
quarter, the first major player in the European online travel agency space to
achieve this.
 
First and foremost ebookers is a highly experienced travel company with
roots and management experience going back 20 years.  We are using new
technologies to produce growth and profit potential that was previously
unheard of in the travel sector.
 
The internet has given us an additional distribution channel that is
experiencing rapid growth and works alongside our telephone call centres.  But
most importantly internet technology in our back office systems has given us
an efficient cost base that a traditional travel company could never have
achieved.  In a traditional travel company if the number of customer bookings
rises, the cost of customer servicing and fulfilment will rise as well.  At
ebookers our automated fulfilment infrastructure, means that as customer
numbers continue to ramp up driven by huge internet take-up, the additional
cost of fulfilling these tickets is minimal and so the profit per booking
increases. This is a key advantage, and one we believe will allow ebookers to
help transform the normal perception of travel as a low profit industry.
 
We hope that this change of name will encourage ebookers to be judged not
as a `dot com` but on its financial and business achievements and on the
future potential of its model.”

 
About ebookers plc

  ebookers plc is a leading pan-European online European travel agency
offering complete one-stop, online shopping with a host of travel products and
services, including negotiated discount airfares with 120 airlines, and
discounts with over 14,000 hotels worldwide.  ebookers plc is the technology
and travel spin-off from Flightbookers plc, the London-based travel agency.
The company was established as a separate Internet company in June 1999.
ebookers plc and its subsidiaries sell to customers in the following eleven
countries: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The company completed its initial
public offering in November 1999 listing on Nasdaq and the Neuer Markt in
Frankfurt, Germany.  In April 2001, ebookers plc listed on the London Stock
Exchange.

——-