US Airways to layoff 890 attendants, some pilots US Airways Group Inc. will lay off 890 flight attendants and 59 pilots by mid-June as it trims its flight schedule and staffing levels to match slow demand, the airline said on Thursday. US Airways, which emerged from bankruptcy protection at the end of March, will lay off about 260 flight attendants in May and the rest in early June, when the pilot layoffs will also go into effect. The airline's latest work force cut follows more than $1 billion in wage reductions and other concessions extracted from its labor groups, both before and during its bankruptcy restructuring. U.S. airlines are feverishly slashing costs to stay aloft during an unprecedented downturn in air travel demand, which began even before the Sept. 11, 2001 airliner attacks. Labor costs are the single largest expense for the industry, and the airlines have cut their collective labor expenses by the billions to respond to the slower economy. Arlington, Virginia-based US Airways now employs about 29,000 workers, down nearly 40 percent from its pre-Sept. 11 levels. Workers at US Airways who had agreed to voluntary furloughs after Sept. 11 are being brought back into active duty, and the airline had to make involuntary cuts to account for those new workers, US Airways spokesman David Castelveter said. The airline is also paring back the number of attendants on its flights to the minimum of one attendant per 50 passengers allowed by U.S. regulators. Castelveter said fewer flight attendants are required, now that many airlines have cut back their inflight food service. Deeks said she had no information on whether further flight attendant layoffs or furloughs would occur. "We hope that this is the end, and that it starts turning up," she said. "But after being in this industry the past couple of years, everyone is really wary about what's next." Only 440 of the layoffs, which affect in total about 3 percent of the airline's flight attendants, will involve workers who are currently active, Deeks said. US Airways' Castelveter said the layoffs would occur at US Airways' hubs in Charlotte, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, as well as in New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. Airline Relief President George Bush on April 16 signed a bill that will provide the nation's aviation industry $3.5 billion in relief from security-related expenses. The aid was included in a $79 billion appropriations request to pay for the costs of the Iraq war. Airlines will receive $2.4 billion by May 16 to reimburse them for security costs incurred since the September 11 terrorist attacks and a mandate to install secured cockpit doors. In addition, there will be a suspension of security fees from June 1 through Sept. 30. Also, the law extends federally sponsored war-risk insurance for another year to Aug. 31, 2004, and extends unemployment benefits to laid-off airline and aerospace workers. The new law includes a provision that the top two executives for any airline receiving aid to get no more in cash pay from April 1, 2003, through March 31, 2004, than they received in fiscal 2002. The Air Transport Association (ATA) has projected that the major airlines will lose a combined $10 billion this year. In 2002, US Airways had expenditures of nearly $190 million in security-related fees, but it was not immediately known how much the company would be eligible for in reimbursement. US Airways chief optimistic US Airways Chairman David Bronner said reaching a deal that keeps the airline at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia International airports is "easily doable" and "too important" to fail. Responding to questions about local fears the airline could virtually abandon Pittsburgh, Bronner on Wednesday expressed optimism about the upcoming negotiations between US Airways officials and state and local leaders, saying an agreement must be reached. "I don't think (we) have any intention at all of giving up Pittsburgh because it's too important," said Bronner, who is the executive director of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, the reorganized airline's biggest stockholder. Airport, airline's future worries officials US Airways and the future of jobs at Pittsburgh International Airport will be the topic of discussion among local legislators meeting today in Pittsburgh with Dennis Yablonsky, secretary for the state's Department of Community and Economic Development. On Friday, Beaver County officials will be among those on a conference call with Gov. Ed Rendell to discuss the same topic before meeting further with US Airways officials. The job issue is critical, said Sen. Gerald LaValle, D-47, Rochester, and Beaver County Commissioners Chairman Dan Donatella. "If we lose 5,000 to 6,000 jobs, we can't create that many jobs," LaValle said. "It would be another steel mill crisis here ... and I don't think we can handle that. Little hope for Midway The administrator overseeing the bankruptcy of Midway Airlines is recommending the company be forced into involuntary liquidation. Midway has been unable to come up with $5 million in new money to continue operations and "there is little likelihood of a successful reorganization," wrote J.M. Cook, a staff attorney for the bankruptcy administrator, in a motion filed Tuesday. We would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Easter. --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.