Booking.com to lay off 4,000 due to pandemic

Norwalk-based Booking Holdings, whose operations include Booking.com, plans to lay off up to 25% of its global workforce as the travel industry continues to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company said it will begin announcing the layoffs ”“ which will affect about 4,000 people ”“ on a country-by-country basis starting in September. Although Booking Holdings also operates online travel outfits Kayak and Priceline, the layoffs will be restricted to Booking.com.

“The Covid-19 crisis has devastated the travel industry, and we continue to feel the impact as travel volumes remain significantly reduced,” according to a company statement. “While we have done much to save as many jobs as possible, we believe we must restructure our organization to match our expectation of the future of travel.”

The move follows similar ones by competitors Airbnb and TripAdvisor, both of which cut their staffs by 25% earlier this year.

Booking Holdings, which reported a 51% decline in first-quarter gross travel bookings year-over-year, is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings tomorrow.