FRANKFURT, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Efforts by travel and tourismgroup TUI Group to shake up its airline operations arelikely to lead to hundreds of job cuts in Hanover, three sourcesfamiliar with the matter told Reuters.
TUI Group, the world's largest leisure and tourism companywas formed from the merger of London-listed TUI Travel andmajority owner TUI AG last year.
As part of plans to bundle airline operations, the group isplanning to use the UK-based Thomson Airways platform as thebase for the combined airline operations with administration andsome of the maintenance activities to be in Britain, the threesources said.
The efforts to save more than 100 million euros ($114million) mean around 400-500 jobs out of more than 2,000 jobscould be lost at TUIfly's base in Hanover and could drawmeasures such as strikes or legal action from unions, they said.
A spokesman for TUI said it was looking at various businessmodels to strengthen the airline operations, but that nodecision had yet been taken. ($1 = 0.8750 euros) (Reporting by Arno Schuetze, Peter Maushagen, Victoria Bryanand Sarah Young; Editing by Kirsti Knolle)