American Airlines cuts seat capacity
BY Staff and Wire reports
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
9/18/12 at 4:20 AM
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American Airlines cut seating capacity on U.S. flights by 3.5 percent for the rest of September and October after pilot retirements, sick calls and mechanical issues spurred more cancellations and delays than usual.
The reductions take effect immediately and will be imposed "selectively across our system," Bruce Hicks, an American spokesman, said in an interview Monday. American led the U.S. industry in dropped flights and cancellations in a new report issued by FlightStats.com.
The cancellations occurred less than a week after the bankrupt carrier imposed cost cuts on its pilots. American, a unit of AMR Corp., won court permission on Sept. 12 to void its existing pilot contract and impose cost cuts after the workers rejected the carrier's final contract offer.
Pilots are conducting a strike vote, even though they don't have the legal right to stage a work stoppage.
AMR also said Monday it has begun issuing layoff-warning notices to its mechanics and related workers. At the same time, workers are being offered incentives to leave the company early, company officials said.
American has its largest maintenance base in Tulsa. It employs more than 5,000 mechanics and related workers and has a total local work force of about 7,000.
American Airlines plans to shut down its Fort Worth maintenance facility in December. The airline plans to outsource the work done at Alliance or shift it to facilities at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Tulsa.
In 2010, the airline closed a Kansas City, Mo., maintenance facility that it acquired in the 2001 purchase of bankrupt TWA.
The Tulsa World Business staff contributed to this story by Bloomberg News.
