THOMAS Cook plans to withdraw more than 500,000 aircraft seats from the market next summer as it increases the amount of in-house flying carried out by its charter airlines.
The move has been heavily criticised by specialist operators, which claim they are being squeezed off routes they have helped to develop.
And the issue of in-house flying is currently under the microscope as the European Commission investigates Airtours’ proposed takeover of First Choice.
The EC is concerned that much of the flying for First Choice’s Air 2000 would be brought in house by Airtours.
Currently, Thomas Cook’s Caledonian Airways and Flying Colours have a summer capacity of around 2.7m seats and some 65% of the flying is for the company’s own tour operations with the remaining 35%, or 1m seats, sold to third-party operators.
In an exclusive interview with Travel Weekly, Thomas Cook group chief executive John Donaldson said it wanted around 85% of its flying to be for in-house operators next year. This would leave less than 500,000 seats available for other operators.
“The way you make money out of tour operating in the UK is to do as much of your in-house flying as you can,” said Donaldson.
“The optimum is that 85% of your own tour operator clients should be flown on in-house aircraft.”
Independents are already struggling to find charter capacity for summer 2000 (Travel Weekly June 21) and Sunvil Holidays managing director and Travel Weekly columnist Noel Josephides said Thomas Cook’s move would put further pressure on small companies.
“The trouble is, it’s the good stuff which is going,” said Josephides. “We’ve had Sunday Kefalonia flights from Gatwick taken away for 2000 and they will be difficult to replace.
“The big companies are now forcing us to make widespread changes and limiting our ability to grow.”
Meanwhile, Thomas Cook is believed to have held talks with British Airways Holidays about acquiring the operator as it looks to increase its long-haul business.
Donaldson refused to comment on the speculation but said: “The big issue is that we are still not fully exploiting our potential in long-haul. But you’ll have to ask British Airways Holidays about any interest in them.”
BAH managing director Roger Heape admitted talks have taken place but said they were only concerning commercial terms. “We are not for sale,” he insisted.
BAH is also poised to suspend its Travel Options late deals subsidiary after a nine-month trial.
Head of sales and marketing Colin Whaley said the discount brand had not performed as well as expected.
“It has not been a roaring success and will be reviewed over the summer,” he said.
n Donaldson on European strategy, see news interview, pages 4 and 5