Officials at US Airways, which is struggling to meet the conditions of federal loans that lifted it out of bankruptcy last year, began making the case for more wage and benefit cuts Friday to skeptical union leaders who have already publicly declared that "the concessions stand is closed."
US Airways has been working on a strategy since December, when its chief executive, David Siegel, said that unexpectedly heated competition from low-fare carriers was forcing it to revise the business plan on which it had based its emergence from bankruptcy last spring.
Executives at US Airways, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, outlined the company's financial situation to its labor advisory council, which includes unions representing the pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, ground personnel and other employees.
The airline said it lost US$98 million in the fourth quarter, compared with a US$794 million loss a year earlier.
"The company discussed, in very general terms, a framework of the future direction" that US Airways would take, said a US Airways spokesman, David Castelveter.
US Airways' unions have consistently said they would not grant a third set of contract concessions, on top of two sets of wage and benefit cuts the airline sought as part of its restructuring. Indeed, yesterday's meeting was not a formal bargaining session, but a regular quarterly meeting.
RSS