The scheduled flight specialist said it was in consultation with staff over possible agency closures and planned to operate on a “virtual” basis where shop closures were made in the wake of the pandemic.

“The focus is to maintain a strong concentrated presence of stores in the South East, however, we are working on both a virtual network of consultants and an ‘associates’ model to those consultants operating in regions without a store, which will allow a new flexible working model for them and enable them to maintain their strong relationships with our customers.”  It said this option could apply “nationwide”. 

Flight Centre did not specify which dozen branches would definitely be maintained or how many shops would eventually re-open. The company said it was seeing “some green shoots of growth but these remain to be 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,” it said.

The firm said it was in consultation “generally” with its workforce.

“Once demand lifts, we believe we will be well placed, having made these strategic decisions, to bounce back stronger than ever before.”  

Flight Centre told TTG it would make no further comment "at this stage".