BOURNEMOUTH tour operator Palmair is scaling back holiday operations to secure its long-term future, the company announced today.

The firm, which has been offering holidays from Bournemouth Airport since 1958, will operate a slimmed-down programme this winter and will not be using its own aircraft from this weekend.

The plane will make its last flight on Saturday and then be handed back to the leasing company.

Instead, Palmair is to charter seats with other carriers, as it did up until 1993, when it established its own airline.

Managing director David Skillicorn said: “These are very difficult economic times and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.

“We have to change the way we do things to meet the demands of a very different economic reality. However we have been operating from Bournemouth for more than 50 years and we fully intend to be around for many more.”

Palmair will operate a programme to Tenerife and Lanzarote in February, March and April using seats on Thomson Airways. The holidays go on sale next week.

An announcement about Summer 2011 will be made at the end of this year.

All Palmair’s 25 staff, including reservations team and cabin crew, were told of the plans during a meeting at head office in Bournemouth yesterday afternoon (Wednesday).

It is hoped to minimise any redundancies by absorbing some employees into the 500-strong workforce of parent company, Bath Travel, which has seen a significant increase in business for 2011, with cruise holiday sales up ten per cent for next year.

Mr Skillicorn added: "Along with all operators, we've been faced with rising jet fuel costs, increased competition and a global downturn. That's the reality and it has been enormously difficult.

“The last couple of years has seen a number of travel companies fail, leaving passengers stranded and out of pocket, because those companies did not recognise the need to adapt to changing times. We are not making that mistake.”

He said Palmair's award winning airline – once voted the best in the world - has had "an amazing 17-year run" since its formation in 1993, first with the popular Whisper Jet and then with the current Boeing 737, whose lease with Astraeus Airlines is being terminated early.

"It's sad that we have to say goodbye to that part of our operation, but we are simply returning to what we did for the first 35 years of Palmair's existence, which is to charter seats from other carriers."

Palmair was established by the late Peter Bath in 1958.