Airtours axes High Street outlets

The growing enthusiasm of holidaymakers for booking direct by phone or via the internet has prompted the UK's largest tour operator to cut one-in-seven of its High Street branches.

Airtours, which has undertaken a global shake-up in an effort to return to profitability, has turned its attention to the UK, where 120 shops, most trading under the Going Places brand, are to be closed.

The move reflects the growing preference of travellers to book holiday packages through the firm's nationwide network of call centres, finance director David Jardine said.

"We are finding there is an increasing trend in customers wishing to book direct," Mr Jardine told BBC News Online.

Sluggish web trade

But while many budget airlines have reported a growth in internet trade, with two thirds of Ryanair's passengers ordering tickets over the web, Airtours had found little evidence of a surge in e-booking.

David Jardine: "Very much a rebalancing act"

Just 2-3% of Airtour's UK bookings are taken online, through sites such as Directholidays.co.uk.

"Our internet operations are in their infancy, and you cannot buy all of our products online," said Mr Jardine, who announced that Airtours will later this year launch a comprehensive e-tail site.

The firm remained "committed" to its High Street outlets, where about three quarters of bookings are taken, and will retain 720 branches, he said.

"This is very much a rebalancing act," Mr Jardine said. "We are reacting to customer preference, but will very much stay on the High Street."

While the move will affect 550 jobs, Airtours hopes to be able to redeploy staff throughout the group.

Global shake-up

The shake-up follows the rationalisation of UK back office operations into a single Rochdale site, and restructuring which helped reduce losses at US offices last year.

The firm has implemented capacity cuts and efficiency initiatives at its German subsidiary FTi, which had suffered from a poor purchasing record.

Airtours two weeks ago revealed widening pre-tax losses, of £63.4m, for the last quarter of 2000.

But the firm reported bookings of winter holidays up 4%, with trade in summer packages 5% ahead.

Shares in Airtours stood 6p lower at 284.75p in late trade in London on Thursday.