United Airlines is closing its Denver reservations center effective Jan. 15.
The move affects 250 employees at the reservations center, including 235 reservations agents, represented by the International Association of Machinists, and 15 management and salaried employees. The employees were notified Wednesday. All are being offered transfers to United reservations centers in Chicago or Detroit.
“We’d like to hang on to as many of them as we can,” said United spokesman Jeff Green.
The center’s closing marks a shift in the way people book their flights and is another sign of United’s cost cuts as it works to exit bankruptcy.
“More customers are choosing to book on the Internet,” said Judy Bishop, United’s vice president of worldwide reservations. “We are seeing fewer calls coming into our reservations offices.”
She said United is committed to responding to calls wherever they are directed.
A little more than a year ago, United’s reservations center had 325 employees, but that number has since shrunk to 250. The Machinists union is negotiating with United for improved retirement benefits for members affected.
“Our members have made great sacrifices to keep United Airlines flying over the years,” said Machinists spokesman Joseph Tiberi. “Reservations work (is currently) being performed overseas. That work definitely should be coming back into this country.”
The center is in an aging facility in the Stapleton vicinity that has been occupied since the 1960s. It recently had a water-main break, Bishop said, and would be expensive to rehabilitate. United will put the building up for sale.
United, the largest carrier at Denver International Airport, has about 5,500 employees in the Denver area.
“United Airlines is doing what they need to do to emerge from bankruptcy,” Denver City Councilman Michael Hancock said in a written statement. “While we are disappointed to hear of the closing of the United Reservation Center, where many of my constituents are employed, I am glad to hear that United will work to place as many of these employees as possible at jobs within the airline.”
Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. executive vice president Tom Clark said he hopes to find opportunities for those who want to stay in Denver and to retrain them, possibly for work at other call centers.
United has closed other reservations offices, including centers in Bloomington, Ind., and Kent, Wash., this year. United has other reservations centers in Honolulu, Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C., among other locations.
Frontier Airlines also has a call center in the Denver area and plans to keep it open, according to Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
