AIRLINES

USAir, Union Officials Meet for Talks: Chairman Seth E. Schofield and President Frank Salizzoni of the Arlington, Va.-based carrier, along with top executives from British Airways--which owns 24% of USAir--and union leaders gathered in New York over the weekend for meetings, USAir spokesman David Shipley said. They were working on details of a plan to cut $500 million in labor costs, but Shipley declined to comment on the status of the talks. USAir has lost more than $2.6 billion in the last four years, and Schofield said in June that the company must cut $1 billion from its budget each year to survive competition from low-cost carriers. The talks had moved slowly until the crash Sept. 8 of USAir Flight 427 near Pittsburgh, Pa. According to the Washington Post, the crash jolted the unions to start working out internal differences in their approach to the talks. Federal investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the crash, which killed all 132 on board. A little more than two months before, a USAir jet crashed near Charlotte, N.C., killing 37 of 57 people on board.