LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The boss of Europe's largest

tour operator, TUI, said on Friday it would use partner airlines

like Ryanair to carry passengers when it is facing strong

demand, enabling it to remain conservative on its own airline

schedule.

Despite the continuing post-pandemic demand for travel, a

number of airlines have had to limit capacity growth targets

because of delivery delays from plane makers, which are still

grappling with supply-chain challenges.

"If you look at the package model, we are conservative in

capacity, we envisaged the market would be more competitive this

year," TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel told reporters in London.

Competition from easyJet and British Airways in the

packaged-holidays businesses has grown across the European

market.

"We want to sell with a good margin, at times where there is

oversupply we will benefit from dynamic access to these

suppliers," Ebel said.

In terms of demand, he said Turkey, once a popular cheap

destination for British and European tourists, was becoming less

so due to higher costs.

GROWTH

TUI wants to expand beyond its packaged-holiday business,

becoming more resilient through a wider offering of amusement

and experience packages via an app.

Ebel compared the business model to that of U.S. internet

giant Amazon ( AMZN ).

"They started with books, and then they grew in all kinds of

other products. Our core is leisure, but it's not only sun and

beach, it's everything about leisure," he told Reuters on the

sidelines of the roundtable.

He added that the company wanted to expand its offering in

more distant destinations like Southeast Asia, China and,

eventually, Latin America.

"We are building a portfolio where we don't depend on one

market or two markets - we can depend on a lot of markets," he

said.