EBOOKERS has revealed 172 UK-based jobs will be lost as part of its restructure programme as it posts a £1.1 million pre-tax profit for the three months to March.
In total, 270 staff – 200 in Europe and 70 in India – are being made redundant, with 95 UK-based sales staff set to go and 77 UK-based support staff including employees from human resources, finance and ticketing departments.
Group commercial director Peter Liney said the job cuts were due to the switch away from telephone bookings to Internet sales, but claimed they would save the company £2.5 million this year.
“We don’t need as many telephone staff with people booking more online,” he said.
Liney said the restructure would be complete by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, the online agency posted a £1.1 million pre-tax profit for the three months to March this year – only £200,000 short of its £1.3 million profit for the whole of 2003.
Non-air sales – including car hire, insurance and hotels – have risen from 29% of turnover last year to 40% this quarter.
Ebookers said it was on target to achieve its aim of a 50% split between air and the high margin non-air sales, but Liney would not put a date on when this target would be achieved.
For jobs in the travel industry see our travel jobs section or visit our partner, totaljobs.com for travel and tourism industry vacancies with some of the UK’s largest companies