SCORES of staff with a famous high street travel agency in Hampshire are today sweating over their jobs.

Giant holiday company Thomson is to axe 800 jobs in a major streamlining operation because more holidaymakers are booking through the Internet.

The changes will mean a reduction in the number of the company's Lunn Poly high street travel agency shops up and down the country.

It was too early to say how many employees locally will be affected by the announcement as no details have been released about where the jobs will go.

Lunn Poly, which has the catchy TV advertising slogan "get away!", has three shops in Southampton, along with ones at Eastleigh, Hythe, Totton, Romsey, Winchester and Lymington.

Staff at those stores were told yesterday morning by their managers. No one was prepared to comment on how the decision will affect them.

Thomson has also decided to change the name of its holiday airline Britannia to Thomsonfly - the same name as that used by the company's recently-launched Coventry-based low-cost carrier.

The job cuts will affect Thomson Holidays, Britannia and Lunn Poly as the company responds to modern holiday trends.

Thomson said it was reviewing its various holiday brands, such as Magic, Crystal and Simply Travel, and there was a possibility of some of these brands being merged.

A Thomson spokesman said: "The days of everyone walking into a travel agent to book their holidays are gone.

"We have to take into account the fact that people book on the Internet or take independent holidays. The whole shape of the package holiday is changing.''

She added: "However, the package holiday will remain the core part of our business. We will meet demand for more dynamic packages.

"We want to sell more holidays direct and through the Internet and our call centres.''

The changes follow the recent departure of Thomson Holidays managing director Chris Mottershead, who has been replaced by Peter Rothwell.

Other management staff have also left.