THE Falcon Holidays brand name is to disappear from the market after nearly three decades, it has emerged.
Its parent company TUI confirmed that it is to phase out the Falcon, Thomson and First Choice brands in a move that follows the merger of the UK and German businesses last year.
The changes in the UK and Ireland markets will not happen for "two or three years", TUI said.
But it will ultimately mark the end of Falcon Holidays, which has been sending tens of thousands of Irish holidaymakers to the sunshine since 1988 and had been one of Ireland's largest tour operators.
Falcon operates from Ireland to a range of holiday destinations in Portugal, the Balearic Islands, Costa del Sol, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and Egypt as well as the Arctic Circle.
Until four years ago the company had been headed up by Christine Donnelly, who was one of four founding directors of Falcon Holidays and worked with the company for 24 years, latterly as head of Ireland.
Last night Falcon's head office in Dublin declined to comment on the proposed changes.
TUI Group, now the world's biggest travel firm, also plans to sell its LateRooms website by the end of the year and has confirmed all its businesses will then migrate to the single brand of TUI.
Its chief executive Peter Long said: "There is no hurry, no urgency, it will all be done in a very controlled way. We are not rushing to rebrand and we are not rebranding for the sake of it."
The announcement comes as the travel giant, formed in December by the merger of London-listed TUI Travel with its Frankfurt-listed parent TUI AG, posted lower losses during the winter.