Big Four share of UK holiday capacity drops to under 50%
The eight largest tour operators in the UK have cut capacity by 8% this year, in contrast to fierce growth from the two leading online retailers, which have together trebled their capacity.
According to statistics from the CAA for the current year the TUI Group and Thomas Cook Group have cut capacity by 4%, MyTravel Group has cut by 9% and First Choice Holidays Group by 17%. Cosmos has also cut by 4% this year, Trailfinders by 14% and Libra Holidays Group by 6%. The combined reduction in capacity of the eight groups, year-on-year, is 1.4 million passengers.
In stark contrast Lastminute Group has boosted capacity by 284% and the InterActive Corporation Group, which includes Expedia.com, has increased capacity by 147%. Together they have added 0.7 million passengers.
In a statement the CAA said: “Although the capacity licensed to all ATOL holders is more or less constant, the distribution among the top ten companies shows a sharp contrast between growth in the online specialists and reductions in conventional tour operators and flight sellers.”
The Big Four now hold 48% of capacity in terms of number of passengers licensed, down from 52% last year and 57% in January 2000.
This is according to the latest ATOL Business report. It also shows that 10.3 million passengers took ATOL protected flights and holidays during Winter 2003/2004. This growth of 0.4% ends four consecutive seasons of decline.
The total revenue earned by ATOL holders for the Winter 2003/2004 season was £5.3 billion, up from £4.9 billion the previous year.
For the year to March 2004, the leading operator was TUI, which increased passengers by 13%, MyTravel was next despite a decline of 13%, followed by First Choice (up 21%) and Thomas Cook (down 2%).
The largest gains in the top ten were made by Avro, up 23% in seventh. Outside the top ten, Expedia grew passengers carried by 287% to 285,773.
Report by Ginny McGrath
Ginny McGrath
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