Travel company to cut a fifth of its workforce over cancellations

A LEADING travel firm has announced it is cutting nearly a fifth of its 4,500-strong workforce after a wave of holidays have been cancelled due to coronavirus.

Hays Travel confirmed yesterday that it is to shed as many as 878 jobs in the latest major blow to the holiday industry.

The travel company said it has “made every possible effort” to avoid job losses “during these extraordinary and distressing times”.

It was “on track for recovery” when the Foreign and Commonwealth Office stopped advising against all non-essential travel in early July.

But the recent decision to reintroduce restrictions for people going to Spain triggered the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of holidays.

Owners John and Irene Hays said: “We are devastated that after all of our efforts and the huge investment we’ve made we now face losing some of our valued employees, through no fault of their own.”

Hays surprised many in October

when it said it was taking charge of all of Thomas Cook’s 555 travel agents across the UK after the 178-year-old firm went out of business, preventing thousands of staff from losing their jobs.

Hays said it has had “no significant redundancies in its 40-year existence”.

Rival firm Tui announced last week it is to close nearly a third of its high street stores in the UK and Ireland.

It plans to move 70 per cent of the 900 affected jobs to a new “home-working sales and service team”.