Reply #15: Airlines' Woes May Be Worse in Coming Year

[54anickel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/27/business/27air.html?adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1104157023-KsoayhFZ8H6kqU1RcoIdiA

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The winter storms and computer malfunctions, which snarled airport traffic from Philadelphia to Atlanta, may have been unavoidable, experts say. But the signs of labor unrest that cropped up over the weekend could be a harbinger of things to come in an industry already buffeted by bankruptcies and structural change.

With the six big airlines expected to lose another $5.5 billion this year, every one of them - American, United, Delta, Continental, Northwest and US Airways - has announced plans for deeper cuts in 2005. All told, they will reach $7.5 billion in spending and at least 20,000 jobs.

"We really have the tough part ahead of us," said Gerald A. Grinstein, the chief executive at Delta Air Lines, which avoided a bankruptcy filing this fall by persuading pilots to cut their pay by a third.

For passengers, the irreversible retrenchment by the airline industry, which has shrunk by a quarter since the start of the decade, has meant the loss of food service, a reduction in routes, flight delays, lost baggage and other headaches.

But if employees' reactions to these kinds of changes are anything like what US Airways experienced over the weekend, consumers are in for more serious disruptions.

Yesterday, US Airways, which is operating in bankruptcy, canceled 29 flights, on top of 300 cancellations on Friday and Saturday, when unusually high numbers of baggage handlers in Philadelphia and flight attendants elsewhere called in sick. Union officials said the sick calls were not organized.

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