The confirmation on Wednesday (1 July) comes after the business entered into consultation with staff in May over potential job cuts.

"As a result of the pandemic, the global travel industry came to a virtual standstill," said Flight Centre in a statement.

"We are seeing some green shots of growth, but these remain far lower than what we are used to.

"No one knows when significant travel demand will return, but we do know that when consumer and business travel does resume, it will look very different."

The business said like all organisations in the travel sector, it was having to consider making some "very difficult" business decisions.

"Sadly, one of those is to close some of our stores in England and Scotland," said Flight Centre.

"Resilience and preparation are critical to ensuring we are in the best shape possible to operate in the post-pandemic era, providing the best possible service to our customers, as well as ensuring our people have greater certainty about their jobs going forwards."

While no figure has yet been placed on the scale of redundancies at Flight Centre, the business previously pledged to "keep as many employees as possible in the business".