Barrhead Travel opens up 100 jobs for former Thomas Cook staff

Scots holiday firm Barrhead Travel has thrown a lifeline to scores of Thomas Cook staff who lost their jobs with its recent collapse, by opening up 100 positions across its 34 branded stores.

The Scottish firm is opening up 100 positions across its 34 branded stores. Picture: Michael Gillen.

Thomas Cook - the world's oldest travel firm - folded at the start of this week, prompting the loss of 21,000 jobs worldwide, about 9,000 of them in the UK. It had more than 600 branches, including about 30 in Scotland.

Barrhead has created positions throughout its UK store network, with new jobs across Scottish cities and towns including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.

It plans on using a team to travel to meet potential candidates over the coming weeks.

Barrhead said former Thomas Cook employees "will bring a wealth of experience to the Barrhead Travel family and are being actively encouraged to contact the Barrhead Travel recruitment line".

Its "Brilliant Travel" division is also fast-tracking applications for up to 100 additional homeworkers or those looking to start their own independent agency.

Renfrewshire-based Barrhead added that there continues to be growing customer demand for specialist holidays such as adventure travel, weddings and honeymoons, river cruise and luxury.

The majority of positions available are customer-focused in their branches or specialist call centres, but there are vacancies also available in marketing, IT and business development.

Barrhead Travel president Jacqueline Dobson said: “We are very proud of our family ethos at Barrhead Travel and are keen to save jobs where we can and support industry colleagues from Thomas Cook. Many of us have very fond memories of Thomas Cook – both professionally and personally.

“We put a lot of support into developing our people and we believe we offer some of the best staff benefits in the industry. It’s clear that the teams from Thomas Cook are truly passionate about finding their clients’ dream holiday and we want to help them get back to doing what they do best as soon as possible.”

Thomas Cook ceased trading after failing to secure the extra £200 million needed to keep the business afloat.