Alaska Airlines Closing Oakland Maintenance Base
09 Settembre 2004 - 11:47PM
PR Newswire (US)
Alaska Airlines Closing Oakland Maintenance Base SEATTLE, Sept. 9
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of an ongoing effort to improve
its competitive standing in the post-9/11 airline industry, Alaska
Airlines announced today that it will contract out all heavy
maintenance work. Up to now Alaska has contracted with vendors for
about 60 percent of its heavy maintenance, while the other 40
percent has been done by its staff at its Oakland hangar. Effective
today, the Oakland facility will be closed and the work transferred
to two vendors. Alaska employs 340 people at the base -- some 80
percent of them licensed aircraft technicians. The remainder serve
in various administrative and support functions. Depending on
seniority, bargaining unit employees will be laid off or given the
opportunity to bid into other maintenance locations in the Alaska
system. The move is part of a wide-ranging series of streamlining
initiatives the airline is announcing today, and comes on the heels
of a management reorganization that started last month. All told,
Alaska is trimming nearly 900 of its more than 11,000 employees and
either contracting out work or, with regard to management,
reorganizing to achieve the same results with fewer people. The
collective savings is projected at between $30 million and $35
million per year. "Our commitment to secure the future of Alaska
Airlines -- to first ensure our survival and then return us to a
position of strength in this permanently changed industry -- has
forced us to make some very tough decisions that impact good
people," said Alaska CEO Bill Ayer. "Our Oakland technicians are
highly talented and have made great strides over the past years by
implementing new systems and processes," added Ayer. "They did
their work well, but the reality is that large-scale maintenance
providers can give us the same excellent quality at a lower cost."
Alaska's heavy maintenance work now will be done entirely by two
contractors: Goodrich Aviation Technical Services in Everett, Wash.
and AAR Aircraft Services in Oklahoma City, Okla. Goodrich has
performed heavy maintenance for Alaska for nearly three decades and
AAR has been the exclusive heavy maintenance provider for the
carrier's MD-80 fleet for more than a year. For employees impacted,
Alaska has talked with union leadership about the possibility of
offering one of the most generous severance packages since 9/11
triggered 100,000 layoffs at other carriers. That package would
include two weeks of pay for every year of service, a lump sum
bonus based on years of service, company-paid health insurance
coverage for one year and extended travel benefits. To help
minimize the number of involuntary departures, the airline has
proposed to offer the same voluntary severance package to other
maintenance and engineering employees at other locations, based on
seniority and on a one-for-one basis, in the hopes of creating
openings for those displaced in Oakland or via seniority bumping.
Closing the maintenance base will have no impact on Alaska's
staffing or flight schedules at Oakland International Airport. The
employees of the Oakland maintenance base, which Alaska acquired in
1988, worked almost exclusively on the airline's fleet of 74 Boeing
737 aircraft. Alaska Airlines has provided air service at Oakland
International Airport since 1983. Alaska, and its sister carrier,
Horizon Air, serve more than 80 cities in Alaska, the Lower 48,
Canada and Mexico. For more news and information, visit the Alaska
Airlines Newsroom on the Internet at http://newsroom.alaskaair.com/
. This release may contain forward-looking statements that are
intended to be subject to the safe harbor protection provided by
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements relate to future
events or future financial performance and involve known and
unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results or
performance to be materially different from those indicated by any
forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify
forward-looking statements by terminology such as "forecast,"
"may," "will," "could," "should," "expect," "plan," "believe,"
"potential" or other similar words indicating future events or
contingencies. Some of the things that could cause actual results
to differ from expectations are: economic conditions; the continued
impact of terrorist attacks, global instability and potential U.S.
military involvement; the company's significant indebtedness;
downgrades of the company's credit ratings; the competitive
environment and other trends in the company's industry; changes in
laws and regulations; changes in the company's operating costs
including fuel; changes in the company's business plans; interest
rates and the availability of financing; liability and other claims
asserted against the company; labor disputes; the company's ability
to attract and retain qualified personnel; and inflation. For a
discussion of these and other risk factors, see Item 1 of the
company's Annual Report on Form 10-K/A for the year ended December
31, 2003. All of the forward-looking statements are qualified in
their entirety by reference to the risk factors discussed therein.
These risk factors may not be exhaustive. The company operates in a
continually changing business environment, and new risk factors
emerge from time to time. Management cannot predict such new risk
factors, nor can it assess the impact, if any, of such new risk
factors on the company's business or events described in any
forward-looking statements. The company disclaims any obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the
date of this release to conform them to actual results. DATASOURCE:
Alaska Airlines CONTACT: Lou Cancelmi, +1-206-392-5170, or Sam
Sperry, +1-206-392-5038, both of Alaska Airlines Web site:
http://www.alaskaair.com/
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