Budget airline easyJet has confirmed plans to close three airport hubs on September 1 - putting hundreds of UK jobs at risk.
It is understood that the airline discussed the plans with unions on Monday according to the Mirror.
670 employees are impacted as easyJet announces it will shut its Stansted, Southend and Newcastle bases next month.
The move will see outbound flights cut from Stansted and Newcastle, but inbound flights continue, however, all flights in and out of Southend will be permanently terminated.
The decision leaves Luton and Gatwick as the nearest easyJet bases for Stansted customers and Manchester and Liverpool for those who use Newcastle.
The airline said it "will be informing affected customers of their options" including transferring to another airport or receiving a full refund in the coming days.
EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said: "We have had to take the very difficult decision to close three UK bases as a result of the unprecedented impact of the pandemic and related travel restrictions, compounded by quarantine measures in the UK which is impacting demand for travel."
"Working closely with our employee representatives, I am pleased that we have been able to identify ways to significantly reduce the number of proposed compulsory redundancies through providing enhanced voluntary redundancy packages for all UK crew alongside additional options like part time and seasonal contracts, base transfers and unpaid leave which we expect to result in reducing the number of job losses overall," Lundgren added.
"We would like to reassure customers due to fly from these airports that we are now contacting anyone whose flight is affected with clear advice on their options which include rerouting via alternative airports or receiving a full refund."
EasyJet - owned by billionaire Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou - restarted flights to Europe on in July, shortly after being handed a £600million loan from the UK taxpayer under the Government Covid Corporate Financing Facility. New quarantine rules to Spain and France have since sparked a fresh wave of cancellations.
