Delta Air Lines is laying off about 200 administrative employees, many of them at the company's Atlanta headquarters near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
The move comes after Delta offered buyouts and early retirements to its employees earlier this year and got more than 2,000 takers.
That wasn't enough for the cost cuts the company sought among administrative staff, Delta spokeswoman Keyra Lynn Johnson said. Delta has been cutting flight capacity, retiring older aircraft and consolidating facilities to adjust for high fuel costs and a tepid economy.
Affected employees were notified in the last week and a half and will leave the company in the next several months, Johnson said. They will receive severance benefits, including health insurance and travel privileges, she added.
Delta does not expect to lay off front-line employees, such as airport agents or flight attendants, Johnson said.
"We're not simply reducing headcount; we're reducing costs as a whole as part of the pressures of high fuel prices," Johnson said. "Reducing headcount involuntarily at Delta is truly something that we look to as a last resort."
Delta has more than 80,000 employees and has long been the metro area's largest corporate employer.
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