Report by Jeremy Skidmore
AIRTOURS group managing director Tim Byrne has pledged to
concentrate on improving margins next year after piling on up to 15% capacity
in the UK market this summer.
Byrne said different tactics were required next year, even
though its UK operation has performed solidly during a disastrous year for the
group.
Airtours is now thought to be market leader in terms of
capacity in the UK, but Byrne said: “We won’t be volume chasing again in the UK.
“We did it this year and got away with it and made money. It
was opportunistic but it was also risky and next year we’ll be concentrating on
improving the margins still further.
“We are now probably the market leader in the UK, but I don’t
really care about that.”