Like many people in the travel business, Dinesh Dhamija thought he might go bust after the September nth attacks on America. Earlier this year, prospects again looked bleak with terrorist threats, the Iraq war and SARS. And an unusually hot summer persuaded many northern Europeans to holiday at home. But the desire to travel remains powerful. Once again, people have begun to shrug off their concerns and pack their bags. Travel bookings this autumn are strong. And that comes as a blessed relief to the London-based company that Mr Dhamija founded, ebookers. His firm now looks set to become one of the first big online travel agencies to start making an annual profit Mr Dhamija does not consider himself an internet pioneer, but rather a veteran of the travel business who quickly grasped the potential of going online. In an industry notorious for booms and busts, searching out razor-thin profit margins has long been crucial. So too has been persuading airlines to give you their best deals in the form of so-called "merchant fares", a process of relationship building that can take years to reach fruition. Mr Dhamija, the son of an Indian diplomat, got into the business in 1980 when he set up a travel agency with his wife at Earl's Court, one of London's busiest Underground stations. These were the days of "bucket shops". With the connivance of some airlines desperate to fill unsold seats, travel agents would skirt the rules of the European airline cartel to sell discounted tickets. That changed with the spread of American-style airline deregulation, which eventually took the discounting business online.
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