Northwest CEO says war would mean cuts in staff and flights EAGAN, Minn. (AP) =97 Northwest Airlines will lay off even more workers and= =20 further reduce its flying if the United States goes to war in Iraq, its=20 chief executive said. "If there is a war, we will be forced to implement an= =20 Iraq war plan that will include further cost reductions and schedule=20 pull-downs," CEO Richard Anderson warned employees in a recorded message=20 Monday. The airline will have to "right-size" its capacity to meet the=20 slackened demand that inevitably will come with a war, Anderson said. "It=20 is not something any of us want to do, myself in particular," he said. "But= =20 it is the only choice we have as demand, particularly internationally,=20 (falls)." During the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. airlines' domestic passenger=20 traffic fell by 8%, trans-Pacific passenger counts fell by 21% and=20 trans-Atlantic travel was off 44%. With a new Gulf War, passenger traffic=20 would fall more sharply than it did in the last war, the Air Transport=20 Association forecast last week. With a war, airlines would most likely lose= =20 $10.7 billion in 2003, the trade group said. Nearly 10% of daily flights=20 could be canceled and 70,000 airline jobs could be cut. Northwest is not=20 yet forecasting how deep the cuts in employment and flights could be. The=20 Eagan-based carrier already has cut about 12,000 employees in the past two= =20 years. "Northwest is studying the situation, but it is premature to speculate on=20 the possible impact," said spokesman Bill Mellon. Employees interviewed at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport said=20 they expect more job cuts if war begins. Flight attendant Mary White, a 25-year veteran, said she doesn't like the=20 prospect but understands how it would be hard to avoid layoffs. "I wish=20 this world would become peaceful so we could get on with life," White said.= =20 "I wish the economy would shape up and the airlines could get back to what= =20 they used to be =97 or better." Jim Atkinson, president of Aircraft= Mechanics=20 Fraternal Association Local 33, said some 400 members of his local have=20 either been laid off or given up their jobs because they didn't want to=20 follow their work to other cities. "We'll have to take this (the war) one=20 day at a time," he said. "We're already operating with thin staffing. I=20 hope this will not affect our group." Northwest has been struggling to=20 recover from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and cope with a weak economy,=20 soft ticket prices and a big drop in business travel. It has lost $1.2=20 billion in that time. Its paying passenger count has fallen from 58.7=20 million in 2000 to 54.1 million in 2001 and 52.7 million last year. And it= =20 is flying less and using smaller planes. Since 2000, Northwest has had a=20 10% decline in available seat miles =97 a key measure of its capacity to fly= =20 passengers. Back in 1991, Northwest blamed a recession and the first Gulf=20 War for a first-quarter loss of $62 million. Overall, passenger traffic in= =20 that quarter fell by nearly 8%. It also lost $121 million in the fourth=20 quarter of 1990, as Middle East tensions and fuel prices rose and travel=20 declined. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************