US Airways furloughs 2,500; seeks new concessions from labor
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) – US Airways furloughed another 2,500 employees Tuesday and said it is seeking additional concessions from labor to attain the cost cuts necessary to successfully emerge from bankruptcy next year. The airline, which has major hubs in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, has already laid off nearly 15,000 workers out of more than 46,000 since the Sept. 11 attacks devastated the airline industry. Employees who were once the best paid in the industry have collectively agreed to $840 million in wage and benefit cuts to help the airline return to profitability.
The additional cuts being sought by management would affect work rules and benefits, not wages, the airline said.
US Airways had promised employees it would not seek further concessions through the bankruptcy court when they agreed to those initial concessions, and the airline is honoring that promise, said US Airways spokesman David Castelveter.
But the labor agreements provide no protection from furloughs.
Under the labor agreements, US Airways promises to operate a minimum of 245 mainline jets. On Tuesday, the company said it plans to continue operating 279 jets if employees agree to the new concessions now being sought.
Initially, US Airways had thought annual cost cuts of $1.2 billion would be sufficient to make the airline profitable. The airline has achieved cuts of $1.3 billion from labor, vendors and other sources. But it says it now needs savings of $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion a year to successfully emerge from bankruptcy by is target date of the first quarter of 2003.
In 2001, the airline lost $2.1 billion on revenue of $8.3 billion.
The furloughs affect all employee groups, from management to pilots, to ticket agents, Castelveter said.
In particular, the airline will close a maintenance hangar in Tampa, Fla., effective immediately, and a reservations call center in Orlando, Fla. Employees with seniority in those facilities will be offered jobs in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the airline said.
Castelveter also said the furloughs will not affect the airline’s ability to operate over the busy Thanksgiving weekend. He said flights are about 90 percent full for Wednesday and Sunday, the two busiest days of the year for the airline industry. On normal days flights are between 70 to 80 percent full.
“We’re slightly higher than what we expected,” Castelveter said.
Union leaders met with airline officials Tuesday afternoon to hear the latest appeal for concessions.
The Association of Flight Attendants, AFL-CIO, said it would not consider the latest crisis to be serious until US Airways executives “share the pain.”
“American workers can’t continue to voluntarily suffer in order to prop up failing executives,” Perry Hayes, master executive council president, said in a statement. “Only time will tell if management is ready to make the same sacrifices it is asking from its workers to save the airline.”