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United Airlines to Hire Flight Attendants

Posted on: Friday, 11 November 2005, 21:00 CST

By James Bernstein, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Nov. 12--United Airlines, which for years has had little but bad news to report, yesterday had some good news: It will hire 2,000 flight attendants, the first time the airline has taken on such workers since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The Chicago-based carrier, which has been operating under bankruptcy protection for three years, said it has completed a restructuring plan that it hopes will allow it to emerge from Chapter 11 in February.

"We have our financing set," said United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski. Part of the restructuring plan, she said, calls for United to expand its international service and decrease domestic operations. More flight attendants are needed on international flights because of federal regulations and because such flights are usually longer than domestic flights.

United now has about 17,000 flight attendants, down from a peak of 25,000 in 2000. About 5,000 had been furloughed in the past few years, Urbanski said. All those people were recalled on Oct. 31, but about half chose not to return, she said.

Altogether, U.S. airlines employ about 90,000 flight attendants, down from 100,000 before Sept. 11.

Urbanski said that the new attendants will be paid $23,000 to $24,000 annually, based on an average of 85 hours of flying time a month.

But Sara Dela Cruz, a spokeswoman for United's flight attendants, said the figures sound "optimistic," and that she expects the salaries to be lower.

Dela Cruz said that she is "excited" that the airline is hiring, but added that the union is still battling United over pension rights and other issues.

United said that beginning Sunday it will accept applications exclusively at united .com/flightattendant for positions based in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

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Source: Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

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