American Airlines Cut Another 1,200

It looks like American Airlines is at it again. As a part of its recovery plan after filing  for bankruptcy the company is getting ready to cut another 1,200 people from their payrolls. The jobs to be cut are going to be primarily in the areas of airport baggage handlers and cargo management jobs. This second wave of layoffs is slamming into the company staffing this year, and if things continue on this way then they will not be the last layoffs that American Airlines perpetrates on its employees in a bid to stay in business.

The job cuts will impact all of the positions at nine facilities. Seven on those facilities will be in the U.S. and the remaining two are in Canada. The company expects to outsource its baggage handling and cargo operations.  The airports that are expected to be impacted by the job cuts and outsourcing include the following: Columbus, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; Hartford, Connecticut; Sacramento, California; Portland, Oregon; Reno, Nevada; Calgary and Vancouver.

Of course, these cuts are only part of a larger plan to trim the company’s expenses. When all is said and done they expect to cut spending on staff by about $1.25 billion. In order to do that they have cut back a lot more than just this 1,200 jobs. A few weeks ago American Airlines announced some even broader scale job cuts in order to being the process of complying with their bankruptcy filing.  For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed on the cuts that have already come:

“Today, AMR is the parent company of both American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle Airlines, Inc., and has a number of businesses and key facilities within its corporate structure. The company is also a founding member of the global oneworld Alliance. All aspects of the airline’s worldwide activities are overseen from AMR’s Corporate Headquarters campus in Fort Worth, Texas. ”

How many workers are getting the boot? Well, that is the worst of the news. The layoffs are expected to affect up to 20,000 workers.  While that number is massive, it is by no means the entirety of the company’s workforce. AMR actually employs about 87,000 workers between the two airlines, so the cuts will end up being about one quarter of the total staff.  That is, if the numbers are as high as is expected. At the current moment there is no official statement with a solid number on the layoffs that are coming.

We do know that in a letter the CEO of American Airlines, Tom Horton, warned staffers that every work group in the company should get ready to lose staff of up to 20%. He made it very clear in this letter that this would include the management groups. The company us looking to save many billions of dollars, and they are expected to get about  $1.25 billion of those saving from cutting back on staff.”