United Airlines furloughs 290 pilots
United Airlines furloughs 290 pilots, part of previously announced plans to cut work force
- On Tuesday September 22, 2009, 3:41 pm EDT
CHICAGO (AP) -- United Airlines has furloughed another 290 pilots, part of previously announced plans to shrink its work force.
United has said it aims to shrink its work force by 7,000. It has been making periodic furloughs and, in some cases, layoffs to move toward that goal.
The new furloughs bring the total number of United pilots out of work to 1,164, according to the United branch of the Air Line Pilots Association.
In a hot line message, union spokesman and pilot Joe Doniach blamed the furloughs on "United management's inability to properly run an airline." He said the union would be working to restore all the furloughed pilots to United cockpits.
The union said it has about 6,400 remaining active pilots at United.
Like other carriers, United has been reducing the amount of flying it does to try to match less demand. United traffic and capacity have both fallen 9.2 percent this year through August compared with the same period last year.
On Tuesday, the Transportation Department reported that employment at the big airlines fell 7.1 percent in July compared with the previous year.
Among those carriers, the biggest drop was at Northwest, where employment fell 12.5 percent, as its new owner Delta Air Lines Inc. integrated it. United's work force shrank 11 percent according to the government's calculations, while American's work force shrank 6.9 percent. Alaska Airlines shrank 6 percent. Delta and US Airways Group Inc. were both down 4.4 percent and Continental shrank 4 percent.
Shares of United parent UAL Corp. fell 36 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $9.04 in afternoon trading.
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"Comparing AA pilots to TWA pilots is like comparing Saks Fifth Ave. with K-Mart"
AA Captain Ed White - APA negotiations committee chairman
