is restructuring its trade sales team and has put its existing team into a staff consultation period.

The company would not say if redundancies were likely but?said ?it would continue to work with the trade.

Its current full-time?team of three agency sales staff includes agency sales manager Nigel Ham, who was formerly general manager of the Elite Travel Group and has also worked for agency consortium Worldchoice and tour operators Dertour and Travelscene.

The operator said the restructure will involve the creation of? closer partnerships with loyal agents and stressed there were no plans to ditch its trade sales team.

Sales director Jo Clarkson said: “We are restructuring our agency sales team. There are no plans to reduce our business with the trade, if anything we want to increase trade business.

“We are looking at working more closely with agents that have always showed their loyalty to us with preferred partner agreements. The trade is a considerable part of our business and our long term plan is to keep that. â