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Alaska Airlines says it is slashing 750 more jobs

Allison Linn
The Associated Press

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The company, which employs more than 11,000 workers, said last month that it was cutting up to 150 management positions. Today, it announced plans to shed another 750 jobs.

The cuts include 340 jobs at the Oakland maintenance base that closed today. From now on, the company said all heavy maintenance work on aircraft will be done by Goodrich Aviation Technical Services in Everett and AAR Aircraft Services in Oklahoma City.

The company also will close some facilities-maintenance and ground-support operations, resulting in another 60 job cuts. And it is cutting 273 jobs in Seattle and various cities in Alaska because it will begin using contractors to clean airplanes between flights.

Alaska said it plans to find ways for employees at Alaska Airlines and its sister airline, Horizon, to share more work, which will eliminate jobs at both Alaska and Horizon.

It also will farm out some customer service work in the state of Alaska and close ticket offices in Juneau, Anchorage and Bellevue, Wash., among other changes.

In a memo to employees, Alaska Airlines chief executive Bill Ayer said the changes were necessary to prevent worse fiscal woes in the future.

"The airline industry is full of examples of inaction, with an eventual devastating toll on huge numbers of employees," he wrote. "We must make changes now to avoid those types of drastic actions later."

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Seattle-based Alaska Air Group Inc. Its shares rose 18 cents to close at $23.71 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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