USAir to Close Engine Plant
USAir plans to eliminate 400 jobs by closing a San Diego aircraft engine overhaul facility that it has operated since acquiring Pacific Southwest Airlines in 1987, the company said Wednesday.
The Arlington, Va.-based airline is selling “certain assets” of Pacific Southwest Airmotive’s operation to Aviall, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Ryder System. But Ryder, which has 500 employees at a similar facility at Burbank Airport, will not keep the San Diego facility open, an Aviall spokeswoman said Wednesday.
About 100 of the eliminated jobs will be transferred to USAir’s Pittsburgh plant, but it is uncertain how many San Diego-based employees will move to that city, said USAir spokesman Dave Shipley. Airmotive’s 400 employees, most of whom are represented by the International Assn. of Machinists, will have the option of using their seniority to win transfers to engine repair shops elsewhere in USAir’s nationwide system.
Wednesday’s plant closing notice came just weeks after USAir announced the elimination of flight crew bases in San Diego and three other cities. About 120 pilots and 274 flight attendants who are based in San Diego are seeking transfers elsewhere in USAir’s system.
Closings of the plant and flight crew bases are all part of a nationwide restructuring designed to make the airline to profitable again. USAir, which reported a 1990 loss of $454 million, in February announced that it would lay off 3,585, or 7% of its employees nationwide.
In February, airline officials were uncertain about the fate of Pacific Southwest Airmotive, which overhauls turbine engines for the airline industry.
However, in a prepared statement released Wednesday, Seth E. Schofield, USAir’s president and chief operating officer, said the airline could “satisfactorily meet our engine overhaul requirements by transferring some of the work being performed at Airmotive to our primary engine maintenance facility at Pittsburgh.” The rest of the work done by Airmotive will be contracted to Aviall.
As part of its restructuring, USAir on May 2 will reduce its daily departures from California airports by 97, to 192. San Diego departures will be reduced from 32 to 21.
The service cuts and work-force reductions represent a dramatic retrenchment for USAir, which was hit hard by fare wars and high fuel costs since acquiring PSA in 1987. The company has linked the cutbacks to the recession, fuel costs and slumping traffic.
