True picture to come in March
The consolidation of the package holiday market makes it difficult to make predictions on overall capacity increases for summer 1999, according to Civil Aviation Authority head of licensing Helen Simpson.
Figures released in the ATOLBusiness report show Sunworld’s capacity at 1.5m at December 1998, a 32% increase on December 1997. Flying Colours Holidays, which Sunworld parent Thomas Cook bought last year, is up 5% to 826,531.
Simpson said the large increases in capacity by some operators may be misleading because of the acquisitions in the last year and the adjustments in capacity made as a result. The figures will be clearer once other major operators such as Airtours and First Choice, which have both said they are cutting back capacity for this summer, report their licensed carryings in March.
Sunworld tour operations managing director Simon Vincent said the figures were distorted because Flying Colours, which reports its carryings in March, had been incorporated into Sunworld, which reports in September.
He said summer ’99 capacity for the combined brands was static at around 1.7m. Vincent added Sunworld was currently outperforming the market with sales up 20% year on year but said it would make a final decision on capacity in a few weeks.
Inspirations has raised carryings by 39% to 823,526 for the same period. Thomson’s capacity is up 7% to 4.5m.
Inspirations managing director Steve Endacott said capacity would be cut back as the figures were posted before parent company Carlson Leisure Group announced its merger with Thomas Cook last October. The operator previously said it would hike capacity from 180,000 to 350,000 for this summer.
A Thomson spokeswoman said capacity had been cut since the figures were lodged last August but declined to give details because the company is in its closed period.
Report by LIZ BIRD
Confusion over licensed carryings as takeovers distort figures