CRISIS-HIT East Lancashire tour operator MyTravel has withdrawn its cruise ship operations.

The company will instead sell the cruise products of other providers.

The global holiday operator, founded in East Lancashire, is currently more than £672million in debt.

The group has agreed arrangements with Louis Ltd, a cruise and hotel group listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange. Louis Ltd will take over operation of three MyTravel ships.

The deal will result in a loss for the year ending September 2004 of £16m for MyTravel.

However, the company will make £1.5million from the sale of its ships.

"The disposal of the ships will result in a significant reduction in both the fixed costs and risks associated with cruise ship operations," the company told shareholders.

The disposal is part of a major cost-cutting exercise announced earlier this month to claw back some of the debt.

The measures also include reducing its aircraft fleet from 56 to 44 and merging nine of its businesses, including Airtours Holidays, MyTravel Airways UK and Going Places, into one business.

MyTravel employs more than 300 at its offices at Helmshore and the Globe Centre at Accrington and several hundred more East Lancashire workers are based at its headquarters near Bury.

Founder and chairman David Crossland, a former office tea boy from Burnley, retired from the business he launched more than 32 years ago in February 2003.