Six Flags to trim jobs, costs in 2008

Theme-park operator Six Flags Inc. plans to cut operating expenses by as much as $60 million this year as it spends less on radio marketing and consolidates advertising accounts.

Six Flags will also remove inefficient rides and reduce the number of employees through an early retirement program to lower costs, the New York-based company said Wednesday in a regulatory filing.

Brooke Gabbert, public relations manager for Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, said a ride called Déjà vu is being removed from the amusement park because the maintenance expense is too high. But a new ride, The Dark Knight Coaster with a Batman theme, is due to open this spring.

"We are streamlining things to be more efficient," Gabbert said. "But we are also putting money into the park where it counts."

Gabbert said the Gurnee park employs between 2,500 to 3,000 seasonal workers and has about 175 full-time employees, of which "a couple" took advantage of the early retirement program.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Shapiro has tried to make the parks more appealing to families and draw customers beyond the theme parks' traditional teenage audience.

The theme-park operator hasn't posted an annual profit since 1998 and called attendance the past two years "disappointing."

Six Flags is in "advanced discussions" about developing theme parks in Asia, the company said in the filing, made in conjunction with a presentation at the ICR XChange conference in Dana Point, Calif.