Flying Tiger Says It May Fold if Wages Aren’t Cut

Financially troubled Flying Tiger Line, the world’s largest air cargo carrier, said Tuesday that it may go out of business unless its unions grant it major concessions.

Lawrence Nagin, senior vice president and general counsel for Flying Tiger, said it is essential that the airline lower its operating costs to remain in the intensely competitive air cargo business. He declined to say how much the airline wanted to shave from wage and benefit costs.

Flying Tiger is the largest subsidiary of Tiger International, a Los Angeles transportation company that also owns the Warren Transport trucking concern. Tiger International lost $72.7 million on revenue of $1.15 billion last year, largely due to losses at Flying Tiger.

Flying Tiger, founded in 1945 by a group of World War II pilots, has been battered by competition from low-cost air cargo carriers that entered the market after it was deregulated in 1978. Flying Tiger has lost an average of $74,600 a day since 1981. Last year, it lost $44.2 million on revenue of $1.1 billion.

Flying Tiger employs 6,500 workers, and about 1,000 workers are based in Los Angeles.

Nagin said Stephen Wolf, Flying Tiger’s new president and chief executive, has held a series of meetings with groups of employees since Sept. 29 and has told them of the company’s need to cut costs. Wolf was meeting with employees in Chicago on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

Dennis Boyle, an officer at International Assn. of Machinists Local 1903, said the union, which represents 2,200 Flying Tiger employees, has not received a give-back proposal from Flying Tiger management. But, he added, “I’m willing to listen to what they have to say.” The union’s contract expires July, 1987, he said.