By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – American Airlines' reservation office in downtown St. Louis closes its doors at the end of the day Monday, affecting more than 500 employees.
The shutdown is part of the airline's diminishing role in St. Louis, including a severe reduction of flights at Lambert Airport.
American spokeswoman Julia Bishop-Cross says the work previously done in St. Louis will be conducted at reservations offices in seven other cities.
"There just isn't enough business for eight U.S. reservations offices and that's because travel has declined and because our customers are increasingly using the Internet and other new booking channels," Bishop-Cross said.
A hundred workers from St. Louis are being transferred to other reservations offices, another 100 are retiring and about 300 are being furloughed.
Julie Niemann, an analyst with RT Jones Capitol Equities in St. Louis, says the cutbacks are the result of companies reducing business travel.
"When they're making their airline reservations, they're going on line," she says. "There's an outfit called get there' and a large number of large corporations are using get there'. They're saving 11-12% on their ticket prices by not going through travel agents. They've become addicted to cost-cutting and there's no reversal in this trend ahead."
In November, American will also reduce the number of flights originating from St. Louis, resulting in more layoffs of former TWA workers.