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US Airways Plans to Cut 70 More Jobs in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Posted on: Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 21:00 CDT

By Richard Craver, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Oct. 27--US Airways Group Inc. said yesterday that it would eliminate 70 more jobs in Winston-Salem as part of consolidating its consumer-affairs division at its headquarters in Tempe, Ariz.

Counting the 268 jobs being cut as part of the transfer of its revenue-accounting operations at Madison Park to Tempe, the airline said it will eliminate at least 338 local jobs.

America West Holdings Corp. completed its purchase of US Airways on Sept. 27 after US Airways emerged for the second time from a Chapter 11-bankruptcy reorganization. The airline kept the US Airways name.

Phil Gee, an airline spokesman, said that the 70 consumer-affairs employees were told that April 28 would be the division's last date of operations in Winston-Salem. The division would have about 120 employees in Tempe, Gee said.

"All of the representatives will be guaranteed a position in customer relations if they choose to relocate," Gee said. Those representatives will be offered a relocation package.

"We're very serious about keeping as many of those employees as possible," Gee said.

Gee said that other members of the local consumer-affairs work force, such as managers, analysts and administrative staff, could apply for another job with the airline. He said that some of those employees, if offered another job, would not receive a relocation package.

Employees that are not transferring will be eligible for a severance package if they work until April 28.

The conversion is part of the airline's plan for becoming a low-fare carrier that can compete better with Southwest Airlines Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp.

Gee said he did not have an update on when the airline would begin eliminating the 268 local jobs in the revenue-accounting operations. Employees were told in September that the transfer could begin in October or take several months.

Once the revenue-accounting and consumer-affairs divisions are transferred to Tempe, the airline will have about 772 employees in the Triad. That includes 621 at its reservations center off Hanes Mall Boulevard and its staff at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro.

Gee said that although the local reservation center is "operationally critical" to US Airways, the airline has not made a final consolidation decision on the division.

The work force at the local reservations and Dividend Miles centers was 1,600 as recently as August 2004. Piedmont Airlines, which was started in Winston-Salem and which US Airways bought in November 1987, had about 5,600 employees in the Triad at its peak.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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LCC, LUV, JBLU,

Source: Winston-Salem Journal

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