HOUSTON, May 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Continental Airlines said Wednesday it will cut about 500 reservation agent positions company wide and close a reservations center in Tampa, Florida, on grounds that the economy is weak and more passengers prefer online reservations.

    The job cuts and center closure will be completed by July 19 this year "in response to reduced call volumes caused by a customer shift towards Web self-service and the global economic recession," the Houston-based carrier said in a bulletin to its more than 43,000 employees.

    "We must make these changes to adapt to changing customer preferences toward the Web," Continental's Reservations and eCommerce Vice President Martin Hand said. "Adding to the structural decline in call volumes caused by the Web has been the effect of the global recession, which has resulted in fewer calls into our reservations centers," he said.

    Continental said it is offering a number of benefits to employees, including "early out" severance and leaves of absence programs. Employees at the Tampa center will also have the option of transferring to other reservation centers in Houston and Salt Lake City.

    The company has reported six straight quarterly losses and cut about 3000 jobs in 2008. It said earlier that further job cuts might be necessary as its U.S. seating capacity shrinks as much as7 percent this year.