The largest travel agency chain in Austria Ruefa is facing a major downsizing, which has already been reported to the employment service as part of the early warning system. Around 100 of the 600 jobs are on the brink, reports the radio station Ö1.

Ruefa is a brand of the local tourism group Verkehrsbüro. For several years now, all of the group's travel agencies have been operating under the Ruefa brand, which has been taken over. A spokeswoman confirmed that the downsizing is imminent. However, she did not want to give exact numbers.

"I cannot confirm the number itself, but we will have to take measures due to the ongoing very challenging overall situation for the travel industry, and unfortunately there are also plans to reduce staff," said the spokeswoman for the Verkehrsbüro Group.

According to the group, the reason for the measure is that sales fell by 70 percent in the previous year. Also this year traveling is “almost no longer possible”. Therefore, the reasons for the downsizing should be "very plausible" and "obvious". The Verkehrsbüro Group is also calling for special solutions for large companies, as these would "fall over" due to the cap on a large part of the funding. "Definitely special solutions" are needed.

It is still unclear whether individual Ruefa travel agencies will also be closed permanently due to the downsizing. In Germany announced a few days ago DER announced the closure of numerous locations. There they want, if possible, to deploy the affected personnel in other travel agencies of the group.