|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
United, Continental cut 4,600 positions
On Thursday, Continental Airlines announced that it would eliminate 3,000 positions and retire 67 mainline aircraft.
The announcement comes just two days after United Airlines declared that it is also scaling back, eliminating a total of 100 aircraft from its fleet, including 30 Boeing 737s, and reducing its domestic capacity by 14 percent.
United is also reducing staff. It expects to lay off 1,400 to 1,600 salaried and management employees.
How many local employees at Washington Dulles International Airport will be affected by layoffs has not been disclosed by either company.
Rob Yingling of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said that he has not been made aware of any local figures, but he stressed that “we as an airports authority work closely with our airline partners to make it cost-effective to work at Dulles and National.” United employs 1,750 employees at Dulles, which is one of five U.S. hubs for the airline.
“The airline industry is in a crisis,” wrote Continental CEO Larry Kellner in a company memo made public on Thursday. “We regret the loss of jobs caused by this crisis, and we will do our best to minimize furloughs and involuntary terminations.”
The same memo states that airline fuel recently closed 75 percent higher than what it was a year ago. “With that price and at our current capacity, our fuel expense this year would be $2.3 billion more than it was last year. That increase alone amounts to about $50,000 per employee,” the memo states.
On Friday, United announced an agreement with the Association of Flight Attendants to allow eligible flight attendants to voluntarily separate from the company. Under the program, eligible attendants will be entitled to severance payments based on years of service and retiree travel benefits.
Continental said that it would begin cutting flights this fall, while United said that its fleet reduction – to include six Boeing 747s and the elimination of its Ted fleet – will begin in spring 2009 and be completed by year-end 2009.
You must be logged in to post a comment.