American Airlines is laying off 321 workers in Dallas-Fort Worth as it overhauls how it handles customer complaints and issues.
The Fort Worth-based air carrier said Monday that it will lay off 656 workers in the D-FW area and Phoenix, all workers within its service recovery teams, which work to resolve passenger service issues.
To streamline customer service issues, American is creating a division called “customer success team,” which the airline will hire 135 workers for. For the first few weeks of those job openings, impacted workers will be given first dibs at those jobs on the new team before it is widely opened.
“We are laser-focused on improving your customer experience,” said Carolyne Truelove, vice president of reservations and service recovery at American. “With that focus is digging deep into where we have customer pain points.”
Truelove said across service recovery, there are complex issues. She explained that American was “bouncing” passengers from group to group, rather than resolving the problem on the first contact. Through first contact resolution, she said, American’s call volumes have gone down close to 20%.
She said the goal is to keep as many of those impacted as possible. The workers are not represented by a union, but because of the “good relationship” between American and the CWA-IBT Passenger Service Association, the union was notified.
“With this change, we will be providing 24/7 support,” Truelove said. “We will actually have more people supporting our service recovery area than we would prior to the change.”
Laid-off workers will be paid through March 30. If workers do not get hired onto the new team, American is allowing them to apply to transfer to one of more than 800 job openings at the company. Workers who do not wish to continue at American or are eligible to retire will be given a severance payment. Outplacement support will also be provided for those who do not wish to continue working at American.
The air carrier is also transitioning some of its “lighter-touch contact center inquiries” to its international teams made up of American and third-party support.
Last week, an airport food service company that runs food and beverage operations at American’s Admirals Clubs and Flagship Lounges at DFW International Airport laid off 334 workers. As of Jan. 15, the airport is working with a new company, Compass, a food service company, which offered all frontline team members a job and managers were offered interviews.
