The chief executive of UK holiday group MyTravel, Tim Byrne, has resigned following two recent profit warnings and a sharp slump in the group's share price.

Mr Byrne will be leaving the company immediately.

The company said his departure came "by mutual consent", but "with regret".

Chairman David Crossland has now put his planned retirement this November on hold. Directors will now report to him until a replacement for Mr Byrne is found.

Difficult year

Mr Byrne took over as chief executive of MyTravel, formerly called Airtours, two years ago.

After a record year of profits in 2001, the slowdown since 11 September has hit the group hard.

Last month, it was forced to issue its second profit warning in four months, sending shares down over 36%.

The company, which runs more than 1,000 travel shops, said a change to accounting introduced by its new auditors Deloitte and Touche would mean a �15m shortfall in its profits.

In May, its shares lost a quarter of their value after MyTravel warned that it still had a million summer holidays left to sell

Total support

At the time of the most recent profit warning, the chairman defended his board of directors.

"As largest shareholder in this group they have my total support," Mr Crossland said.

However, recent press reports have suggested that a change of management was imminent and inevitable after the plunge in value of the company.

As well as the travel shops, MyTravel runs 100 hotels, four airlines, four cruise ships and a recently-launched budget airline.