Brussels, 02/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission gave the green light to the creation of a joint venture between the tour operator Thomas Cook Holdings and British Airways. This new entity will gather together the activities of the two parties in the package holiday sector in the United Kingdom, towards short and long-haul destinations. With regards to the first sector (short-haul designations), the Commission noted that this would mainly concern "city breaks", a sector where the combined market share is small and noticeably smaller that that of Airtours, the market leader. Also, no competition problems have been found in the second sector (long-haul designations), the combines market share also being weak. The parties will also be confronted with strong competition from Kuoni, Virgin and other tour operators, large and small.