American Airlines to cut 1,500 jobs in carrier’s maintenance division
By RANDOLPH HEASTER
The Kansas City Star
Besides the former TWA overhaul base near KCI, American has maintenance hubs in Tulsa, Okla., and Fort Worth, Texas, plus many smaller U.S. bases. American Airlines will cut 1,500 jobs in its maintenance division as part of the 6,800 job cuts it announced two weeks ago.
It was not immediately known how many of those jobs would be in Kansas City.
American, which is reducing its fleet of aircraft, did not break down the cuts by location, saying those decisions had yet to be made. A spokeswoman for the airline did say Friday that the total would break down to 1,300 mechanics and 200 management and support staff.
Besides the former TWA overhaul base near Kansas City International, American has maintenance hubs in Tulsa, Okla., and Fort Worth, Texas, plus many smaller bases in the country. Besides maintaining American’s jets, workers at the hubs work on jets brought in by other carriers.
American has about 14,000 employees in its maintenance division, including management and support staff, and 13,000 of them are represented by the Transport Workers Union.
In Kansas City, American has more than 1,000 workers, including about 885 mechanics and other hourly employees at the maintenance base and airport.
Gordon Clark, president of Transport Workers Union Local 530 in Kansas City, said the company had not provided additional information about where the jobs would be eliminated. The airline, however, is in the midst of offering an early-retirement buyout program that could reduce the effect of an involuntary layoff, he said.
“With our senior work force here in Kansas City, it’s possible we could minimize the number of forced layoffs if enough people take the retirement,” said Clark, adding that workers have through most of August to decide whether to accept the package.
The Kansas City overhaul base lost about 800 jobs in 2004 and 2005, the last time American made cuts to cope with deteriorating financial conditions. Since then, city officials secured a new long-term lease for American to continue using part of the massive facility. Also, more work has returned to the base — both American’s and outside, third-party work — which has slowly added more jobs to the site.
But as fuel prices soared through 2008, the Fort Worth-based airline, part of AMR Corp., announced two weeks ago it would shed 8 percent of its work force — the 6,800 jobs — to cope with financial distress brought on by record fuel costs and a weakening economy. The company earlier said those cuts would include 900 flight attendant jobs and 200 pilot positions.
American plans to cut its U.S. flying by up to 12 percent after the busy summer travel season ends.
On Wednesday, American announced it would speed up the retirement of its 34 Airbus A300 aircraft by the end of next year instead of waiting until 2012. American and its feeder carrier, American Eagle, will ground 103 planes this year.
The Kansas City maintenance base works on American Eagle regional aircraft, but it currently does not do maintenance on the jets American is retiring later this year, the A300s and McDonnell Douglas MD-80s.
Clark said neither the company nor the union was to blame for the latest round of cuts.
“Our economy is what it is, and fuel prices are just killing our industry and our jobs,” he said. “It’s frustrating because there’s not a whole lot of control we have over those things.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report. To reach Randolph Heaster, call 816-234-4746 or send e-mail to rheaster@kcstar.com.