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Tuesday, September 16, 2008
No Layoffs At American Airlines Yet
Due to a recent surge in retirements, American Airlines has cancelled their initial plans to layoff dozens of pilots. The understaffed airline was reported to have drawn up plans to eliminate nearly 8% of their current workforce (about 6,800 jobs). This announcement comes as the DOW Jones Industrial plummeted over 500 points yesterday via the collapse of Lehman Brothers and buyout of Merrill Lynch. "Our sense is they simply need the pilots to run the airline," said Allied Pilots Association spokesman Gregg Overman. "We've been saying for quite some time the airline is short-staffed in a number of areas, including pilots."
In addition to Overman's words, Vice President of Flight Mark Hettermann mentioned several factors including pilots on military duty, personal leave and additional retirements lowered the number of active pilots close to the threshold they had hoped to achieve via the layoffs.
Eventually these pilots will be back from their military service and personal leaves so it will be interesting to see how the tone changes. These layoffs are going to be coming at some point in the near future due to the continued instability in the industry.
147 pilots have retired from American Airlines since August 1st, according to spokeswoman Tami McLallen.
Source: SupplyExec
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1 comments:
With any luck, they may be able to find another job, but what about their possible pensions and other benefits.
I wouldn't like to work somewhere for 15-20 years and lose my pension due to layoffs. I saw that happen to my Grandfather, pretty sad stuff.