American Airlines to lay off thousands
 

Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 10:15 AM EDT


American Airlines to lay off thousands


The Business Review (Albany)

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American Airlines' parent company is planning major cuts including job cuts and additional fees.
At its annual meeting Wednesday, Fort Worth. Texas-based AMR Corp. officials said that high fuel costs will bring additional fees -- including a $15 charge for travelers' first checked bag--thousands of layoffs, and retirement of more than 75 aircraft from its American Airlines fleet.
The new baggage fee is effective for tickets purchased on or after June 15.
The airline giant expects to shave 11 percent to 12 percent of its domestic flights in the fourth quarter. This will result in the grounding by year's end of approximately 40 to 45 American Airlines jets, 35 to 40 American Eagle regional jets, plus some number of Eagle turbo-props, said Gerard Arpey, chairman and chief executive.
AMR (NYSE: AMR) had already planned to retire some of its MD-80s, which are less fuel-efficient than others in its fleet, and replacing them with 34 new 737 aircraft next year, and an additional 36 in 2010.
The tightened flight schedule will result in job cuts at American and its subsidiary, American Eagle. American Eagle handles 3 percent of the passenger traffic at Albany International Airport.
CEO Arpey said layoffs would be across the board and could number in the thousands.
The company reported that fuel prices have increased more than 10 percent since its first-quarter results five weeks ago when it lost $328 million. The company's fuel expenses were up more than $660 million in the first quarter.
"If $125-per-barrel oil is the new reality," Arpey said, "preserving the progress we have made is going to require some significant and difficult changes."

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany...html?ana=yfcpc

The news keeps getting better and better these days...:mad:

I posted this yesterday in another thread, I'll repeat it here:

Well, not good news at all. But let's take a look at the numbers. The latest status 15 report (AMR lingo for seniority list) shows 10.35 pilots for every MD-80. The press release indicated a fleet reduction of 40-45 MD-80's, or 465 pilot jobs at risk. What the press release fails to mention, is that AMR is still planning to take delivery of 34 737's in 2009 and 36 in 2010. The plan still remains to swap those out 1 for 1 (mostly) with MD-80's. What remains to be seen is whether these aircraft groundings are an acceleration of the MD-fleet retirement, or a permanent reduction. Remember, the 11-12% is for the FOURTH QUARTER, overall annual mainline reduction is 3-4 %.

The plan before this announcement was to have a net gain in aircraft by the end of 2009, all they are really doing is flattening out the growth and using large numbers in a single quarter to increase the physiological effect. It's an old AMR trick.

My guess is that furlough recalls will be stop for a while, but I doubt we will see outright furloughs this year. JMHO.

What are the chances of the new aircraft taking a one way trip to the desert for storage or deliveries being deferred as the market for the 800 is quite strong overseas? It’s been done by other carriers after 9/11. I hope that would not be the case for AA.

How about stop giving management those big bonuses for "running" the company?

I am willing to bet bunch of AA pilots are going to take early retirement, kind of like earlier this yr

Another casualty of high oil prices. We can either do something about them (change the type of energy we use from oil), or we can watch them slowly eat our economy alive.

Unfortunately, the people who are controlling the economy don't view it as the American peoples economy; they treat it as an opprotunity to make money for themselves and their friends......


New K Now

The only sensible way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil (Saudi Arabia and Venezuela) is to produce our own. The technology exists to drill, extract, and refine oil with minimal environmental impact.

It is time to take action and move in the direction of energy independence. Otherwise our economic prospects as a nation are questionable at best.

P

Do you know how many flight attendants per A/C such as the MD-80? My wife is IMA based and she is worried, as many are after hearing the bad news. Thank you.

1 per 50 seats.

Well...yes...but I think he meant staffing of F/A crews per aircraft ;)

From the APA Union Boss in ORD
 

Fellow Chicago Pilots,

I am sure by now you have heard or read about American Airlines' response to the record high oil price and the unstable U.S. airline industry. As was announced on Wednesday, AMR is reducing domestic capacity by 11 percent at both American Airlines and American Eagle, and is looking at increasing international flying.

A quick overview of AMR’s announcement:


--Delivery of 70 737-800s in the next 30 months

--34 in 2009

--36 in 2010

--Up to 42 MD-80s parked. These aircraft were scheduled for replacement in 2009

--At least 3 Airbus parked and possibly more going forward

--35 to 40 RJ and turboprops parked


The parking of these aircraft will equate to 6 percent of the domestic capacity. Management also said that this could result in employee reductions and facility closures. By mid-June, management will solidify the number of employee reductions, facility closures and schedule adjustments.

So what does this mean to the Chicago pilots?


American is short some 200 pilots going into the summer season, and the plan is to make it work short-staffed through the summer. And as we start a “training bubble” with the arrival of more 737s and unknown pilot retirements, going forward it is unlikely American will furlough any pilots.


American is looking into reducing city pairs that are unprofitable and unfortunately, ORD has many city pairs that are unprofitable. It does appear that ORD will have a greater percentage of city pairs that will be cut. How this will affect the number of jobs at ORD on the MD-80 going forward is unknown at this time.


Right now, the plan is to reintroduce the 737 to ORD sometime in 2009, and with the announcement of the possibility of more international flights, my hope is that ORD base will remain the same size or possibly increase.


So where do we go from here?


As pilots, we have no control over of the current economic conditions, U.S. foreign policy, lack of a U.S. energy policy, AMR’s lack of a fuel hedge, inefficient aircraft, airline reliability and an economically unstable airline industry.


What we do have control over is making sure that we continue to do what the pilots at American Airlines do best -- taking care of the crew and passengers and safely and comfortable flying them from Point A to Point B.

As a union, we have control over our preparation for the certainty of the uncertainty of this industry. APA has retained Miller Buckfire, a highly creditable merger and acquisition firm (which, coincidently, AMR looked at retaining back in 2002). In addition, APA has created a trust to pay the legal fees incurred in merging seniority lists, if AMR were to merge in the future. Preparation is vital to assure that the pilots of American Airlines do not get put into a position in which we have to make rushed decisions. The APA leadership has prepared and will continue to prepare for the industry volatility.

Mr. Arpey stated this past Wednesday he believes in paying top dollar for top talent. We at APA believe that concept also holds true for the pilots of American Airlines and are committed to restoring our profession.

Enjoy this Memorial Day weekend with family and friends, for those who have to work and be away from your family, I thank you.

Fly Safe and take care of one another!

As far as things go for AE, we operate a total of 308 aircraft. Announcement was for parking 35-40 RJs and "additional turboprops." So that means a large chunk of our flying will be decreased. We have about 3000 pilots total and crew about 5 CAs and 5 FOs per a/c. There hasnt been any official word on how many displacements and furloughs are ahead, but you can do the math. We have been losing about 50-60 pilots/month in the past to go to other carriers, but since every other major and regional has stopped hiring I doubt we will have much attrition to solve the ensuing over staffed situation.

Are you part of the bush administration, because you hit it right on the head!!!! AMR losing billions but management awarded millions in bonuses!!!

Not going to happen anytime soon .
Funny avatar you have ,would,nt want to be aboard that bus if that situation ever arose :eek: