RSS
Home
American Airlines follows US Airways 1,000 job cuts with 700 of its own
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
While the recession may officially be over, you'd have a hard time convincing airline employees who continue to see thousands of jobs being eliminated. US Airways last week announced close to 1,000 layoffs as it slashes routes and consolidates resources at the airline's hub cities of Charlotte, Philadelphia and Phoenix.
On the heels of the US Airways announcement comes a new one from American Airlines. Having reduced its fleet from 900 aircraft back in 2000 to just 600 today, American no longer has a need for the extensive maintenance facilities that used to service 50 percent more aircraft. The airline has advised the employees at its Kansas City, Missouri maintenance facility that they will be out of work come next September. The Kansas City facility at one time employed 10,000 workers for TWA and was one of the largest employers in the area.
American's other large maintenance bases in Fort Worth and Tulsa will not be affected by the closure in Kansas City. However, three smaller maintenance substations located in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Detroit and San Jose, California will also be closing. The total number of jobs being eliminated at the various maintenance facilities is about 700.
American over the years has been the exception to the industry norm by not outsourcing their maintenance to independent companies. Instead, the airline has grown its maintenance business to perform most of the work on the American fleet as well as offering services to other airlines from around the world. Unfortunately, American's labor costs were too high as it tried to find new sources of work for the Kansas City base. Maintenance facilities outside of the U.S. Considerably lower labor costs overseas has shifted much of the work to these international locations
