CHICAGO (AP) -- United Airlines is laying off another 900 flight attendants next month as it continues to lose money in bankruptcy.þþUnited, which this week reported a net loss of $382 million for January during its first full calendar month in bankruptcy, cited economic reasons for the action and said it has a surplus of flight attendants based on current service.þþSpokesman Joe Hopkins said the carrier would seek volunteers for the furloughs, which take effect April 1. Under the furlough program, workers are laid off but can be recalled.þþThe Association of Flight Attendants attributed the move to lighter-than-expected passenger traffic.þþThe world's second-largest carrier currently has 19,000 active flight attendants in a total work force of 72,700, with another 4,200 flight attendants on voluntary leave.þþUnited is on a strict timetable to show progress toward profitability in bankruptcy or else risk losing its interim financing. Management is seeking to reduce its annual labor tab by $2.56 billion and also wants to create a separate low-cost carrier.þþIn case its bankruptcy reorganization falters, some United union officials have been talking in recent weeks with potential new sources of financing, including investment banks, state pension funds and private equity firms.þþAs with most other carriers, the airline's passenger traffic is nowhere near enough to make it profitable. United said Thursday its planes were 70.2 percent full in February -- up slightly from a year earlier but still far below the break-even point.þþCEO Glenn Tilton is taking the carrier's case straight to passengers this month, appearing in a video being shown aboard United flights, according to a company hot line.þþAddressing the camera as he walks at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, Tilton talks about United's much-improved on-time record in 2002 -- best among major U.S. carriers for the first time -- and gives an e-mail address for passengers to provide feedback: customervoice@united.com.þþShares in United parent UAL Corp. closed unchanged at 97 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.þþ
Source: NY Times
