TWA Braces for Battle, Cancels Half Its Flights
Trans World Airlines canceled half its flights today as it squared off against flight attendants who walked out rather than accept pay cuts the airline says it needs to survive.
Drawing on 1,500 newly hired flight attendants and as many ticket agents and other employees trained for cabin duties, the airline aimed to resume normal operations within four days despite the strike by 5,700 members of the Independent Federation of Flight Attendants, TWA Chairman Carl Icahn said.
Icahn estimated that TWA would lose as much as $50 million even if the airline restores full service as quickly as he hopes.
‘Shut This Place’
Union President Victoria Frankovich vowed to “shut this place down” after talks collapsed early this morning. “We went as far as we could,” Frankovich said.
Icahn said TWA sought a federal court order in Kansas City to keep 10,000 members of the International Assn. of Machinists on the job, including 3,500 who work at the airline’s maintenance base in that city. Pilots, who signed a no-strike contract in January, were not honoring the picket lines, TWA said.
About 15 flight attendants walked picket lines at TWA’s arrival and departure gates at Los Angeles International Airport this morning, carrying signs that read, “Don’t Fly TWA” and “TWA Guilty of Bad Faith Bargaining.” The gates were largely deserted, but skycaps said there is never much mid-morning traffic.
‘As Long as It Takes’
Purser Celeste Coar, who wore the silver wings on her uniform jacket upside down “because I’m on strike,” said she was prepared to continue picketing “as long as it takes.”
TWA said it was canceling five of 17 domestic flights from Los Angeles on Friday. The one overseas flight, a non-stop to London, was expected to depart on schedule. A survey of passengers here whose flights had been canceled indicated that none of them were having difficulty finding alternate flights.
TWA canceled 27 of 67 flights from New York, 13 of 19 from Chicago, 40% of the service at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, 7 of the 11 daily departures from Indianapolis, 10 of 14 flights from Kansas City and 2 of the 4 from Minneapolis-St. Paul, according to airline officials in those cities.
Several international flights from New York, Newark, Chicago and Boston to London, Paris, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Tel Aviv and Athens were dropped.
TWA, under pressure from low-cost competitors and declining traffic, reported losses of $193.1 million last year. Icahn, who won wage and work-rule concessions from pilots and machinists, had sought a 22% wage cut and two more paid hours in the air each week for flight attendants.
