CHICAGO (WBBM) -- United Airlines revealed Monday that it will lay-off 950 of its pilots. before the summer's end.
United Airlines spokeswoman Megan McCarthy talked to Newsradio 780 about the latest layoff announcement.
McCarthy says the first 100 pilots losing their jobs will be notified next month, and their layoffs will be effective in September.
The pilot furloughs will then continue at a similar pace through 2009. Two weeks ago, United announced the layoffs of 1,400 to 1,600 salaried and management employees.
All of the nation's largest airlines, except for Southwest, have been unveiling various cost-cutting efforts of late as record oil prices threaten their bottom line.
Statement from United Airlines:
"As we reduce the size of our fleet and take actions to enable United to compete in an environment of record fuel prices, we must take the difficult, but necessary step to reduce the number of people we have to run our operation; and today, we notified our pilots about expected furloughs. We continue discussions with ALPA and all of our unions on ways to mitigate involuntary furloughs, and we are working to notify all of our employee groups about furloughs as soon as we know the impact of our capacity reductions."
Here are some facts about the layoffs
-Total of 950 active pilots will be laid off.
The first 100 will be notified next month and their layoffs will be effective in September, and then continuing at a similar pace through 2009.
-UAL has about 6,600 pilots. They announced that they were reducing their fleet by 100 planes (last week). -Two weeks ago they announced the layoffs of 1,400 to 1,600 salaried and management employees.
-UAL has 55,000 employees, of which approximately 40,000 d still have undetermined futures -- and could face layoffs (all union employees-- mechanics, flight attendants, bag handlers, customer service).
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