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Travel reservation firm lays off 100 in Denver

Rocky Mountain News

Published October 21, 2006 at midnight

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Travel reservation company Galileo cut its Denver work force by 20 percent this week, laying off 100 of its 500 metro-area workers.

The move comes just a month after the firm was bought out by a private equity investor for $4.3 billion.

The company, which provides computerized reservation services for the travel industry, said Friday it was undergoing a "re-engineering process" that involved simplifying its business and reducing costs.

President and Chief Executive Officer Gordon Wilson had told workers about the changes, the firm said.

"We will remain successful if we make changes before changes are forced upon us," Wilson said in a statement. "It is always better to take action from a position of strength rather than weakness.

"It is with deep regret that this will inevitably have an impact on a number of our employees, but I remain committed to completing all actions as quickly as possible so that the uncertainty is kept to the minimum."

The layoffs this week were part of global work force reduction of as many as 500 employees.

Galileo, founded by Chicago's United Airlines, was launched on the now-ancient Apollo computer reservation system 35 years ago.

The company went public in 1997 as Galileo International. It was bought by Cendant Corp. in 2001 to form the basis of the bedeviled company's travel services division, called Travelport. Other brands under that umbrella include Orbitz and Gulliver's Travel Associates.

Cendant sold Travelport to New York's Blackstone Group in August. It currently employs 8,959 workers globally.