THE jobs of more than 100 workers at collapsed holiday group Freedom Direct could be saved if a deal is struck to sell the firm to one of a number of interested parties, it emerged last night.

The online retailer closed down this week after running into difficulties with its trading licence, leaving thousands of families facing up to the prospect of seeing their holidays cancelled.

The Newcastle company axed its 109-strong workforce on Thursday afternoon, however liquidators now say there are several businesses interested in taking on the company’s assets, including its staff.

The liquidator, accountants RMT, told The Journal that there is still the possibility of another travel operator taking over the business and, should a buyer be found, they could offer Freedom’s staff new employment.

“We are currently in discussions with a number of interested parties,” said RMT’s Mike Pott.

Meanwhile, RMT said 8,833 customers’ holiday bookings were directly affected by Freedom’s collapse and reiterated that all customers who have their holidays cancelled will be refunded.

The cash-flow crisis which caused Freedom’s collapse came after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) stopped the firm from taking money from customers on April 1 when it failed to satisfactorily submit its accounts on time.

The company has spent the last two weeks unable to operate as normal and, after seeing its £650,000 bond with the CAA pulled, ultimately fell out of operation.

Mr Pott said: “RMT initially entered into discussions with a number of parties to establish whether Freedom could continue to operate, renew its bond and retain its workforce.

“We explored a number of other options, including transferring the business to another licence-holder and investigating within the travel industry as to whether any other organisation was able to take the business forward.

“Regrettably this was not possible due to the time constraints and the directors made the difficult decision that it was not possible to continue to trade.”

Chief executive Martin Jones said the firm had planned to switch its trading licence from the CAA’s ATOL (Air Travel Organisers’ License) to a different kind of licence with the Travel Trust Association (TTA) – a move which he said would lessen its exposure to the embattled aviation sector.