Thomas Cook cuts 2,500 jobs and announces closure of 200 travel agents

Struggling tour giant Thomas Cook today slashed 2,500 jobs and unveiled plans to close nearly 200 high street travel agents.

The 170-year-old firm — which takes six million people in the UK on holiday every year — announced the news to staff this morning.

The job cuts amount to one in six of its 15,500 workforce in the UK and Ireland. About 1,600 jobs will be cut in its travel agents as 195 stores close, leaving it with 874 outlets. The remaining 900 jobs will go in head office roles.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, which represents employees, said it was “shocked and angry” at the scale of the job losses. General secretary Manuel Cortes said: “This constant policy of slash and burn, with the axing of one in four stores and the loss of jobs, is simply self-defeating.”

But management said the cuts were needed to restore the health of the operator, which slipped to a £590 million loss in its last financial year. An ill-timed swoop for the Co-operative’s travel business left the company with too many UK travel agents and in November 2011 it was forced to turn to its lenders for an extra £200 million in funding.

Thomas Cook’s UK and European chief Peter Fankhauser said: “It is never easy to make decisions that impact directly on our people, but we also owe it to our customers to operate efficiently and ensure that when they book their holiday with us our administrative costs are as low as possible.”

Sharon Ainsworth, national officer of union Usdaw, said: “Even those who are not at risk of redundancy are facing the prospect of cuts to their benefits packages, following a number of cost-cutting proposals which the business has put forward.”