Due to the diminishing demand, the American Express Travel will conclude its Canadian call center located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and as expected, 87 jobs will be cut. In a telephone interview, David Barnes, VP of communications and public affairs of Toronto, Amex Canada, told Chronicle-Herald newspaper in Halifax that the business travel resource will shut down on March 27.

They have tried to perform other means to lessen the situation. They offer voluntary part-time job but with the economic circumstances, it continued to turn down. There were 1,000 employees working in the company. They also have five other tour contact centres located in Canada which organize airline, hotel, and wide-ranging travel bookings for the Canadian government and commercial clients. Barnes also added that there were no plans of offering workers to reassign to other sites. The International Air Transport Association reported this year that North American business-class travel has slumped 7.7% in 2008. In fact, it was the lowest level since 2003. [via]