GALILEOInternational is making at least 250 redundancies at its European headquarters in Swindon after a major review of itsoperations.
The move, which will halve the global distribution system’s UK workforce, is due to be completed by the middle of this year when product development will be centralised in Denver, Colorado.
A Galileo spokeswoman said: “It doesn’t make sense to operate two developmentfacilities.
We want to bring about economies of scale and of course there will be opportunities to cut costs, but this is not intended to be a cost-cutting exercise.
“This is a very sad day for Galileo. Nobody has done this lightly. You do not lay off 250 people without feeling dreadful about it.”
The move does not affect Galileo UK, based in Maidenhead, which is run as a separate company.
Staff whose jobs are being axed have now been told and each one is currently being interviewed to see if they are interested in applying for a number of positions at its Denver operation.
A spokeswoman for the company said it was still not known how many positions would be available in the US.
“It depends on who is interested, and visas and a number of other things. It’s too early to say,” she said.
The majority of the jobs which have been lost are technical and marketing roles.
Marketing, sales, account managment and support staff are relocating to a new site in Heathrow while around 60 staff will move to smaller premises in Swindon.
The spokeswoman assured the travel trade that it would not notice any changes in the service provided.
“It just means that the helpdesk will be calling staff in Denver, rather than Swindon,” she said. “Denver has always operated a 24hr support service.”
Among the UK-based senior management, vice-president product development Gordon Watt has been made redundant while Gordon Wilson, vice-president distributor operations, is relocating to Denver.