British Airways abandons the high street

British Airways will close all 17 high street travel stores as well as its Belfast call centre, it announced today.

The move, which reflects the rise of internet booking, will see the airline shed 300 jobs at the stores and its corporate travel agency at Heathrow and another 100 in Belfast.

BA, under its new chief executive Willie Walsh, last week unveiled plans to cut costs by £450m over the next two years and warned staff to expect more job cuts.

The airline is abandoning the high street as customers increasingly use its website at BA.com to make bookings.

Martin George, BA's commercial director, said the move reflected an industry-wide switch to the internet: "We have to ensure that our business reflects this."

Mr George also pointed that the number of phone calls to BA's call centres had dropped from 15m to 6m over the past five years.

"We have reduced our headcount in this area of the business by similar amounts from 2,200 to 800 people," he said.

"Despite closing our call centres in Glasgow and London in 2004 we still have too much property for the size of our operation."

BA also said its high streets were forecast to make increasing losses despite efforts to reduce cut costs and boost revenue. All 17 shops will close by the end of August.

Unions reacted angrily to the news. Ed Blissett, the GMB national officer, said: "GMB is disgusted with the closure of Contact BA in Belfast, which is wholly unjustified. It is based entirely on property values."

He also deplored BA's decision to close its travel shops, which he described as devastating not only for GMB members who work there, but also for holidaymakers who lack computers.

"Those who do not have access to the internet for making their holiday plans, or just prefer to deal with a person and not a machine, will no longer be able to use the travel shop."

Mr Walsh, who gained a reputation as a cost-cutter at Aer Lingus, last week made it clear that the workforce, which has shrunk from 65,000 to 47,000 in six years, will become smaller still and that a £2bn pensions deficit would need to be tackled.