AmWest adding 1,000 employees
Tom Tingle/The Arizona Republic
America West Airlines customer-service representative Billie Pioske (right) helps Zeina Mohamed at Sky Harbor International Airport on Friday morning. Mohamed was flying to Toronto.
Jonathan J. Higuera
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 27, 2003 12:00 AM
America West Airlines says it will hire 1,000 employees and add four aircraft to its fleet by June to support anticipated growth.
It's not clear how many of those jobs will be based in Phoenix, but it's likely the bulk will be here because Phoenix is the main hub for the Tempe-based carrier, America West spokeswoman Janice Monahan said Friday.
"Phoenix is our primary hub, and certainly the majority of our flights come in and out of here," she said. "So we'll certainly need a good number of those additional employees in Phoenix."
Where to apply
Anyone seeking a job at America West can go to the company's Web site, americawest.com, then click on "About AWA" and "Employment." A database of available jobs can be searched. As of Friday, 14 jobs were posted in the Phoenix area.
The hires will come in all categories, and a "good number" will be frontline employees such as pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, baggage handlers and ticket counter and gate agents.
The company has about 13,000 employees, with 9,000 of them in the Valley.
Some new employees also will be located in Las Vegas, America West's other hub and a destination point for much of its expanded service. In the past two months, the company announced new round-trip flights from 15 cities to Las Vegas as part of its 2004 growth plans.
As for other future expanded service, Monahan said those cities would be announced at a later date.
"We look for opportunities dominated by high-fare carriers," she said. "We can go in with low fares and good service and let customers try us who may not have before."
The new employees are needed in part to help support the addition of four Airbus A320 aircraft to the carrier's fleet. Those aircraft are expected to be in service by June 1. The lease agreements for the Airbus planes range from four to seven years. One of the airplanes is new and the others are several years old.
"With the successful transformation of America West into a full-service, low-fare carrier, and with increasing consumer demand for our service, we believe we are in the right position to grow," said Doug Parker, America West chairman and chief executive officer, in a written statement.
The nation's eighth-largest carrier, America West increased passenger traffic 7.3 percent in the first 11 months of 2003, joining low-fare airlines such as Southwest Airlines Co. in boosting business. The five biggest U.S. airlines, including AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, lost business since the terrorist attacks in 2001, which reduced travel and led to billions of dollars of losses for the industry.
The company has told Wall Street it expects to grow 10 percent in 2004.
Airline analyst Ray Neidl said the company is "still not out of the woods, but is in much better shape than a year or two ago.
"The new pricing system appears to work, and they appear to have become a true low-cost carrier," said Neidl, who works for Blaylock & Partners in New York. He's had a buy recommendation on the stock for a few weeks, with a target price of $19.
"They've reached a point where they can make money each year and can grow 10 percent each year," he said.
America West stock closed at $11.62 Friday, up 19 cents.
The four additional aircraft will bring the company's fleet to more than 140. Two more Airbus aircraft will be added in late 2004 in lease agreements announced earlier.
Bloomberg News contributed to this article
