The business confirmed the move to TTG on Thursday afternoon (28 May) but declined to set out exact numbers of proposed redundancies.

It has pledged to "keep as many employees as possible in the business", and support those who lose their jobs.

"We are deeply saddened to see the effect Covid-19 has had on the travel industry, to see the world close in front of us is something we never thought we would ever experience in our lifetimes," said Flight Centre in a statement.

"We are now in a position, like many other businesses in travel, to announce we are entering into a collective consultation period with our workforce.

"The exact numbers of potential job losses have not been confirmed at this stage.

"Our first focus at Flight Centre is always our people, and we will do everything in our power to keep as many employees as possible in the business.

"We will offer support to those who may, at the end of consultation, unfortunately lose their jobs."

The statement added the firm, which has 80 stores across the UK, was focusing on short-term resilience before looking at how it can "re-imagine" its business "to fit the future world".

"We are taking this time to ensure our business is resilient in the short term, to enable us to have a strong structure when customers are ready to travel with us, and in the longer term, to be in the best position possible to re-imagine our business to best fit the future world," said Flight Centre.

"We are still seeing enquiries coming through for new holidays for later in the year and into next year and are setting ourselves up to react once the world fully reopens."