Takeover warfare broke out in Britain's holiday and travel industry yesterday. Airtours, Britain's second-largest tour operator, launched a hostile bid worth £850 million sterling for First Choice, the third-largest holiday group currently engaged to marry Kuoni of Switzerland in a £1.5 billion get-together.

First Choice owns the JWT and Falcon tour firms in Ireland, while Airtours owns Panorama Holidays. If the Airtours bid is successful, the combined irtours/First Choice group would rank as Britain's largest tour operator, commanding a market share around 30 per cent and a stock market value of nearly £3 billion sterling.

Current market leader Thomson Travel Group, which holds a market share of about 25 per cent, has said it would not stand idly by in the event of a merger of the two companies.