United Airlines said Friday that it would lay off nearly 1,500 management and salaried employees by Jan. 19.
That is a 14 percent reduction in its management and salaried work force, and a 1.9 percent decline from its total work force of 80,000 employees.
United, a unit of the UAL Corp, has been struggling to restructure its business since filing for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 9. It has to meet certain monthly cash flow expectations set forth by its four lenders so that it can obtain access to US$700 million of loans. United said Friday that the furloughs would help it achieve the cost cuts needed to reach those cash-flow numbers.
The airline also said it would close its remaining 32 city ticket offices by Jan. 28, resulting in the furlough of an additional 188 workers.
Dan Walsh, United's vice president for sales, said in a statement that United customers were increasingly buying tickets online or through a reservations hot line. This made the city ticket offices unnecessary, he said.
United has not decided who among its management and salaried employees will be laid off. It said it would send notices to the affected workers as soon as those decisions were made.
"These changes are part of the process of creating a new business that is competitive, customer-focused and sustainable," Sara Fields, United's senior vice president in charge of people, said .
Last week, United put a message on its employee hot line saying that "significant layoffs are likely in the short run." The company said that it had recorded that message because a federal law required it to give advance warning if there were big layoffs or plant closings in the near future.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, United has laid off more than 20,000 workers, or a fifth of its work force.
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