Turbulence Over American Airlines

“American Moves to Cut Union Workers” (May 1) does not tell the entire story.

The most “junior” of the 5,000 flight attendants who are facing furlough on July 1 are the last 1,818 of the more than 4,100 TWA flight attendants who came over to American Airlines when it acquired TWA just over two years ago.

Most of them are older than 50. The newest one was hired in 1977 and the most senior started in 1954. Their ranks include my wife and the surviving members of the so-called golden girls, who were featured in a Los Angeles Times article in September 2001 (“A ‘Heck of a Ride’ at TWA”).

Their places on the line will be taken over by 1,000 American Airlines flight attendants who were hired as recently as 1999 and possibly later, depending on the number of pending retirements.

They will undergo eight days of company-paid training, beginning this month to be able to crew planes that are still under the TWA operating certificate.

Once they are trained, the FAA will not permit them to staff planes on the American Airlines operating certificate, thus the company will pay their full salary while they are not working until they take over the TWA planes in July.

In addition, they will receive moving expenses. All that is done by a company that claims to be so broke that it eliminated furlough pay and has cut employer-paid health insurance for its laid-off employees to 30 days from three months.

Dror Toister

Tarzana

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Regarding “CEO at American Airlines Resigns,” April 25:

American Airlines completed the purchase of my company, TWA, in April 2001.

TWA was a major airline. It had 190 jets and worldwide routes. At Los Angeles International Airport, it had a pilot-flight attendant base and a large maintenance hangar.

At the time of the merger, American’s pilots union, the Allied Pilots Assn., put 60% of TWA’s 2,400 pilots at the bottom of its seniority list, including captains with 15 years seniority -- below even American’s most junior pilots.

I had seven years of seniority at TWA and was flying as a first officer on Boeing 767s on international, long-haul routes.

I am now furloughed, while pilots at American hired in 2001 still work. In short, American and its pilots union ensured that most of TWA’s employees lost their seniority so they could be furloughed instead of junior, new-hire American employees.

Out of 22,000 TWA employees working when American bought us, fewer than 7,000 remain, and by September fewer than 4,000 will be left.

William Price

Studio City

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Being an American Airlines employee for almost 29 years now, I keep looking for an article that really explains why the airline is in such dire straits (“For American Airlines, No Gains Before More Pains,” James Flanigan, April 30).

How about all the mistakes senior management has made?

One does not have to look far to find them: The decision long ago to not compete with Southwest; purchasing AirCal and then dumping all its routes; purchasing Reno Air and dumping almost all the routes; and then the biggest boo-boo of all, acquiring TWA.

Garry Klassen

Alta Loma

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James Flanigan repeated the saw that American Airlines’ problems were related to employee compensation.

If that is true, why do any of the executives at the airline receive compensation higher than the president of JetBlue?

In fact, in the 17 years that I spent involved in the airline business, management decisions, staffing, and compensation were the primary causes of loses.

The employees worked extremely hard to make up for management’s lack of judgment.

Larry Severson

Fountain Valley