The future of hundreds of Bradford travel jobs hangs in the balance after Thomas Cook revealed plans to make more than 2,600 workers redundant.

The company, which has been hit by the slump in the travel industry since the terrorist attacks in America, employs about 500 staff at its JMC tour operator headquarters in Bradford.

Across Europe, the cuts represent about ten per cent of the firm's workforce.

A spokesman for Thomas Cook today refused to reveal where the cuts would fall, but stressed that JMC jobs would be among those under threat.

"These job losses affect every part of our operation across Europe, and JMC is a very large part of that," he said.

"We are not yet in a position to reveal the details of these redundancies and are not prepared to say when more information may be available."

There was a despondent mood among JMC's workers at its multi-million pound headquarters at Aldermanbury, Bradford.

One member of staff, who did not want to be named, said there had been no official comment about the future of staff.

He said: "The first we heard about it was over the internet.

"The mood here is a bit uncertain but that's the way it has been since September 11.

"We have not even been told when to expect any news about our futures."

Thomas Cook, which is jointly owned by German airline Lufthansa and department store group KarstadtQuelle, has reported a 12 per cent fall in bookings since September 11 and is expected to close 100 travel agents around the UK.

Alan Stewart, chief executive of Thomas Cook UK said the firm had little option but to make the cuts.

"It's very unfortunate that we are having to look at cost reduction measures across the group, but very necessary given the current trading conditions," he said.

Bookings for this winter and next summer have been the most severely affected.

The company, which is Europe's second largest travel company, said it wants to keep annual profits at last year's level of £100m.