Vegas travel agencies close offices, cut jobs

Friday, Nov. 2, 2001 | 11:07 a.m.

Travel companies have been hit hard by the fallout of the terrorist attacks, with some segments within the industry hurt worse than others.

Prestige Travel & Cruises, one of the largest travel agencies serving Las Vegas, closed five of its 20 Las Vegas offices and has laid off some employees.

Leo Falkensammer, vice president and chief financial officer of Prestige Travel American Express in Las Vegas, said the office closures had been contemplated before the Sept. 11 attacks, but the travel slowdown that occurred since the tragedy made closing the offices inevitable.

"Fall has always been somewhat of a slow time for us," Falkensammer said. "Kids are out of school, summer vacations are over and Prestige has never done many ski packages. This has been a slow time for us for 21 years."

But with travel off more than 20 percent nationwide, he said the time was right to close some of the offices with the smallest volume. He did not say how many employees were laid off.

Falkensammer said high-end travel, cruises and tours have been affected -- an indication that retirees with more discretionary spending money have been more jittery about travel.

That's part of the reason for the planned closure of Carlson Wagonlit Travel's Summerlin office, which serves the Sun City market.

Another major Las Vegas travel company, Lowestfare.com, laid off 460 employees -- half its work force -- in September. The company is consolidating some of its subsidiaries in other cities and moving employees to Las Vegas. Last week, the company announced its latest move, closing Lawrence, Kan.-based Maupintour, a high-end tour packaging company, and transferring some employees to Lowestfare.com's Summerlin office.

Another travel-related company that has been hurt dramatically by the attacks is Henderson-based Certified Airline Passenger Services.

Shut down immediately after the attacks when the Federal Aviation Administration banned off-airport baggage check-ins with its stricter security policies, CAPS has been out of work for about seven weeks and is unsure about its future.

Las Vegas taxi drivers also have felt the pinch of the travel downturn. The Nevada Taxicab Authority reported that for the month of September, the number of taxi trips taken was down 370,000, from 1.8 million in September 2000 to 1.4 million a year later.

The average revenue per shift reported by the city's 16 cab companies fell from $213 in September 2000 to $166 a year later.

Cab drivers earn a portion of the shift revenues.