Delta was expected to announce a 15-20% cut in its 80,000-strong workforce as Flight International went to press. Continental began the charge towards staff reductions, announcing 12,000 layoffs, followed by American (20,000), United (20,000), US Airways (11,000), America West (2,000), American Trans Air (1,500), Spirit (800), Mesa (700), Midwest Express (450), Frontier (440),Northwest Airlines (10,000) and Aloha (250). In addition, Hawaiian, Great Lakes and Mesaba plan cuts, while closure of Midway cut another 1,700 jobs. US airlines across the board are dropping an average of one in five services and retiring aircraft Typical was Northwest cutting its services by 20%. Among the cuts, American Trans Air will retire its 15 Boeing 727-200s by next month, Continental is suspending all McDonnellDouglasDC-10-30 services from October and grounding 31 narrowbodies and 14 Continental Express turboprops. North of the border, Air Canada is reducing services to the USA by 20% and asking Ottawa for up to C$4 billion ($2.6 billion) in aid. Canada 3000, the country's second biggest carrier, has also asked for federal assistance. Bookings were down 70% in the days following the attack, and Merrill Lynch analyst Mike Linenberg says "it could easily be a year or so" before traffic returns to normal. He forecasts a net loss for the US airline industry of $6.5 billion, up from $2.2 billion and even higher than estimates by other analysts straight after the attack. Instead of a net profit of around $650 million for 2002, Linenberg now predicts a net loss of $3.5 billion.
Source: Flight International
