Alaska (Airlines) to slash 900 jobs

[UpInArms]

http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/5531133p-5466415c.html

Alaska Airlines announced major expense-reduction surgery Thursday, trimming 900 workers from its payroll and closing its maintenance base.

The SeaTac-based airline, the nation's ninth largest, said the move along with a previously announced 150-person management staff reduction will save the company between $30 million and $35 million a year. The layoffs could amount to nearly 300 people in the Puget Sound area.

Alaska Chairman Bill Ayer said the airline had hoped to dodge the move, but continuing financial pressure made it unavoidable.

<snip>

•Shutdown of the company's Oakland, Calif., maintenance facility. The maintenance base at Oakland International Airport had performed all of the airline's internally done heavy maintenance work. About 340 workers will be affected.

The closure is immediate. Two contractors - one in Everett and one in Oklahoma City - will perform the work done in Oakland. Its overnight maintenance base in Seattle will remain open.

...more...

[rooboy]

1. Let's hope those 900 people can make a good living on eBay.n/t

[Ruffhowse]

2. Ha! Exactly. Bushco's Ebay based economic recovery program!

[Judi Lynn]

4. Sure glad Cheney clued us in on E-Bay. There's a fortune to be made

for any of us with the entrepreneurial spirit. We can all grow the pie higher!

[flamingyouth]

3. Wasn't the Oakland facility ultimately blamed for their 2000 crash?

The jackscrew in the tail of the MD-80 that crashed into the Pacific hadn't been properly lubricated and the pilots lost control, IIRC.