The Air New Zealand Holidays store on Maxwell Rd, Blenheim, will close next week after the national carrier pulled the plug on its nationwide network of travel stores.
Three people will lose their jobs when Air New Zealand closes its travel store in Blenheim next week.
The national carrier has entered into an agreement with Australian travel company Helloworld, who will be purchasing six Holidays stores in New Zealand.
The remaining 16 stores around the country will be closed and staff made redundant on November 30.
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said the company decided retail travel stores were no longer core to its business as part of a strategic review.
"The Blenheim store is not part of the sale and purchase agreement," she said.
"Our first priority is to work with the three staff in this store to identify possible redeployment options within Air New Zealand. If this is not possible these staff will be eligible for redundancy compensation."
Blenheim residents still had three other travel stores to choose from, House of Travel, Flight Centre and Harvey World Travel, itself a subsidiary of Helloworld.
Air New Zealand had originally hoped the Australian company would purchase 10 of the 22 stores, which would have saved the jobs of 59 employees, as they would have carried on under the new owner.
Instead only six stores were purchased by the Australian company.
In October, when the proposal was first announced, Air New Zealand chief sales and commercial officer Cam Wallace said the company would work hard to find redeployment options for the 41 staff not covered by the change of ownership.
If that was not possible, staff would be eligible for redundancy compensation, he said.
Wallace added that customers would still be able to purchase flight tickets online, at Air New Zealand's contact centre, or other travel agencies, including the 10 that would be transferred to new owners.
This comes at the same time the airline announced it would grow domestic operations by 8 per cent this year.
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