Holiday Extras says it has completed its restructuring as part of a two-year recovery plan.

The company, based near Hythe , was hit hard by the pandemic . It specialises in providing travel extras such as airport hotels, parking and travel insurance, becoming the market leader.

But in July it announced it was slashing 330 staff - including 250 at its headquarters in Newingreen. However, it says some of the those jobs have since been saved as a result of better than expected trading and use of the furlough scheme although more than 300 have still lost their jobs.

The company says it has now made the structural changes necessary to "secure the long-term future" of the business with the next stage of the recovery plan focusing on getting its team back to work safely and capitalising on new initiatives developed during lockdown.

Its contact centre will resume seven-day operations later this month and much of the core team has already returned to its Newingreen base.

The firm says market research shows "a simple, hassle-free cancellation and amendment process is a priority for holidaymakers at the moment, so a fully-automated cancellation and refund process has been built, tested and rolled out during lockdown to ensure customers can book with confidence even if their travel plans might change".

Its German business, based in Munich, is expanding its range of domestic travel options, and the UK business will be rolling out additional domestic breaks opportunities later this month as well.

Matthew Pack, group CEO at Holiday Extras, said: "We’ve worked continuously since the start of the pandemic to ensure that we will come through this downturn and safeguard the future of the business.

“In July we announced that our restructure would include some unavoidable redundancies, and although we have reduced that number, we are still very sadly saying goodbye to 309 members of our team. Our teams and culture are what makes Holiday Extras special, so we’ve left no stone unturned in making that very difficult decision.”

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