DALLAS- Eagle, the regional-flying affiliate of American Airlines, may furlough 223 Texas-based pilots and flight attendants in February as the company cuts costs under bankruptcy protection.American Eagle notified Texas officials of the possible furloughs on the same day that its CEO told employees that bankruptcy reorganisation will mean job losses and unpopular decisions.
Eagle vice president Cathy McCann told the Texas Workforce Commission in a letter received Thursday that 119 pilots and 104 flight attendants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area could lose their jobs around February 13.The notice does not cover employees outside Texas. Airline officials did not immediately respond to messages asking whether workers in other states could lose their jobs.
American, the third-biggest US airline, has about 74,000 employees, and Eagle has about 14,000, including part-timers.AMR Corp, which owns American Airlines and Eagle, filed for bankruptcy protection on November 29. The company hopes to reduce debt and aircraft-lease obligations and reduce labour costs while in bankruptcy.
Separately, AMR's new CEO, Thomas W Horton, told employees yesterday that the company will cut jobs as it goes through bankruptcy.He didn't give a figure."We will have to make very tough and sometimes unpopular decisions that will impact people's lives," Horton said.Horton said American would focus in coming weeks on renegotiating debt and aircraft-lease deals. He said the company would ground some planes and shrink before it can grow again. He also said American needed to get "competitive labour contracts" with unions-the company says its labour costs are higher than other airlines.
Horton also said that "opportunists" might try to buy American, sell it or break it up, but he advocated keeping the company together.Analysts have speculated that US Airways Group Inc could try to buy American.(AP)
