Mobile and Technology

Continental Airlines has decided to eliminate about 600 reservation-agent positions, effective April 11.

Published: 23 Feb 2010

Continental Airlines has decided to eliminate about 600 reservation-agent positions, effective April 11.

The airline has chosen to go ahead with this move as customers increasingly prefer to book flights online. Continental mentioned that it has witnessed a 15 percent drop in call volume.

The airline said it will cut the jobs of 250 agents who are currently on leave plus another 350 still working. Continental will have about 2,000 of the workers after the reductions.

The Houston-bases carrier also isn’t renewing a contract to take customer calls for Walt Disney Co., affecting about 100 workers. The airline didn’t renew the Disney contract because the costs of wages and benefits for those workers exceeded revenue from the agreement, said Martin Hand, Continental’s vice president of reservations and e-commerce, according to a report filed by businessweek.com.

Continental said it will offer an ‘early-out’ programme to reservation employees who have worked at the carrier for 10 years. It will offer severance and outplacement services for employees affected by the cuts.