CHICAGO — United Airlines is cutting about 600 jobs as it aims to keep costs in line with reductions in flying.
The airline says the job cuts will include buyouts and layoffs. Some open positions won’t be filled.
The cuts are spread around the company’s locations, although many are expected to happen in Chicago. That’s where United is based and where it has one of its biggest hubs at O’Hare International Airport. The positions being cut are in management and administration.
The layoffs come as United reports a loss of $723 million for last year. It’s reducing flying this year, which is one reason for the layoffs.
Spokeswoman Megan McCarthy says United cut 4 senior officers last month, out of about 50 at the company. The company employs about 84,000 people worldwide.
Earlier Thursday, the parent of United Airlines reported a $620 million quarterly loss as travelers stayed away following its problems earlier in the year with absorbing Continental.
Its full-year loss almost wiped out its $840 million profit from 2011.
The fourth-quarter loss worked out to $1.87 per share. Excluding special items the loss would have been 58 cents per share, matching expectations of analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Superstorm Sandy cut $85 million from its results in 2012’s final quarter.
A year ago the company lost $138 million, or 42 cents per share.
United’s switch to a single passenger-information system last year caused problems with its website and frustrated some of its most lucrative customers when they couldn’t get upgrades to first-class seats. Some of its customer service workers at airports struggled with new software on their computers, creating long lines.
Those problems drove potential customers away. Traffic fell 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter. United reduced the amount of flying it did, too, so its planes were actually slightly fuller.
The company is aiming to put those issues behind it. It has said the technology issues are solved.
“With much of our integration behind us, our significantly improved operational performance and our increasing customer satisfaction, we can now go forward as one company,” said Jeff Smisek, chairman, president, and CEO of United Continental Holdings Inc.
Revenue for the full year ticked up slightly to $37.15 billion.
“We see improvement this year and expect UAL to narrow the gap between itself and peers on revenue performance,” S&P Capital IQ analyst Jim Corridore wrote in a note.
But he added that the company’s “ongoing integration challenges keep us cautious on the shares, despite our positive view on the overall US airline industry.”
Shares of the Chicago-based United Continental Holdings Inc. rose 90 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $25.90 after rising to a 52-week high of $26.37 in earlier trading.