US Airways Walks Away From Las Vegas, Slashes Jobs

(MoneyWatch)  US Airways has announced its latest "Strategic Plan" to try and create a more profitable airline. Let's be honest here. They are simply finishing the job they started during the merger with America West and rallying around their hubs. Apparently, the US Airways strategy is to keep one hub from each of its mergers (USAir = Philadelphia, Piedmont = Charlotte, America West = Phoenix), but even the hubs aren't going unscathed. Unfortunately, this also means big job cuts.

The bottom line is that 99 percent of all US Airways flying will now touch Phoenix, Charlotte, Philadelphia, or Washington/National. Right now, that number is 93 percent, so they have to make some changes. The biggest change is that Vegas will be slashed from 64 to 36 flights a day - way down from the three figure number back in the America West heyday.

Phoenix doesn't appear to be seeing a huge cut. The previously announced demise of flights to Wichita (and station closing) will now be accompanied by the closing of Colorado Springs as well. Charlotte shouldn't see a lot of change either.

Philly, however, will be taking a hit on its international flying. Weakened demand is causing them to shut Birmingham (UK), London/Gatwick, Milan, Shannon, and Stockholm. Beijing won't be starting. I imagine those airplanes will come back into the domestic system and there will be a ripple effect heading downward as larger planes take over for smaller planes on many routes.

Remember, US Airways sold 10 Embraer 190s and now, the remaining 15 will fly only Boston-LaGuardia on the Shuttle and Boston-Philly. That means they'll need some other narrowbodies to fill in for those airplanes, so things will just cascade down. It wouldn't surprise me to see some 767 flying in the Caribbean, though I don't know for sure.

So what's the upshot of this? Massive layoffs. Crew bases in Boston, LaGuardia (remember, they're swapping their New York flights for Washington flights with Delta), and Vegas will close. There will be reductions in other bases as well. One thousand operational positions will disappear.

Do I like these moves? Sort of. I like the route changes they're making, but it's painful to see so many jobs disappear. There are no easy decisions in this industry.