AirTran to cut 480 pilot, flight attendant jobs AP July 7, 2008 4:32 PM ET

[mickey2000]

Look here:effective Sept. 6th

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=AP&Date=20080707&ID=8865190&Symbol=AAI

 

[Lisa06468]

Oh lovely. They changed my flights again this morning. I think I'll shop around before I call them.

 

[CarolA]

And there will be another round of flight cuts to deal with this.

Plus there was this cheery statement

"News of the planned job cuts comes after AirTran told employees Wednesday that it is seeking to cut its overall employee pay by about 10 percent, and it warned that it may need to cut wages further in the future.

AirTran executives said cost-saving efforts the carrier has already implemented — reducing capacity by 15 percent, cutting costs, raising $150 million in cash by selling stock, capping a portion of the company's fuel exposure with hedges, and raising ticket prices and fees — have not been enough to deal with the impact of oil prices that have doubled in the last year."

 

[TLinden16]

They changed my flight for October last week, and changed it again today. I hope they don't cancel it

 

[Lisa06468]

Well shopping around did no good. All alternate flights are way higher than I can pay or the times arent right, and Im being super flexible here.

News of paycuts is not a good thing - cant expect the crew to be overly happy to fly with us.

 

[GoingtoSeeRella]

OK, so I just booked a $79 one way flight for April on AirTran. So...if they go out of business before then...what recourse do we have? Can I get my money back, or am I outta luck??

 

[CarolA]

OK, so I just booked a $79 one way flight for April on AirTran. So...if they go out of business before then...what recourse do we have? Can I get my money back, or am I outta luck??

Depends...

Did you book using a credit card?

If so MOST credit card companies have been giving refunds in the past. However, as I understand the law they only HAVE to process the refund if the "falure to provide service" was within 60 days of your purchase.

If you booked with a debit card it's harder to get those funds.

Now realize that bankruptcy and "going out of buisness" are not the same thing. Frontier is currently in bankruptcy and still flying. Almost ALL of the major airlines have flown right into and out of bankruptcy.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

This is SO nerve-wracking.

So far there have only been minor changes to our October flights and the changes are in our favor--we fly down 30 minutes earlier and back home 10 minutes later. We are flying out of Indianapolis.

I'll keep watching.

Back in October 2006 we flew on Delta and I remember having to worry about those flights too! (Thankfully, they worked out OK)

 

[Lil'Simba]

Our non-stop flight home was cancelled (August) - they put us on a transfer flight (don't know what you call them - I don't travel much) LOL
Our price was still good, so I can't complain too much. Now we get to see Atlanta for about 15 minutes!

 

[McDISer]

For the last 2 weeks, I've been on a thread worrying about Midwest Express. Many said they were going to go with AirTran, since they were based out of Orlando.

I don't think Milwaukee International is going to have any air carriers left.

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

I fly down on the 26th and we fly back to ATL on the 30th. Corey will be coming in on some as yet unbooked flight from her business site, so at least there is hope that one of us can get to Orlando, if they go under.

If for some reason AirTran totally closes up shop, I can drive down, but I don't even want to think about the gas bill for the trip. I will say that when I drove by the gas station this morning and saw the "cheap stuff" was $4.04 a gallon, I did pat my dashboard and tell my little car that I bought a couple of years ago that it finally paid off rolling all of that negative equity from the truck into a new car note. I knew that if gas ever hit a sustained $4 a gallon that I would be able to finally feel good about abandoning my much loved truck. It was a bittersweet moment.

 

[WeCantWait]

Well this explains why most of the Airtran employees we dealt with this past week were absolutely miserable.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

.....
If for some reason AirTran totally closes up shop, I can drive down, but I don't even want to think about the gas bill for the trip.
.....

That's what I'm thinking - - drive down if AirTran goes *poof*. I hope it doesn't come to that!

 

[nhl66pens]

We might just have to get use to this, American also announced job cuts (8% of its workforce), as airlines are trying to deal with jumps in oil prices just like we are at home. Get some mylanta, tums or pepcid ac and hold on tight. I booked through Disney and used their insurance, if AirTran does cease operations, will they assist or is it all on the customer?

 

[Inkmahm]

For the last 2 weeks, I've been on a thread worrying about Midwest Express. Many said they were going to go with AirTran, since they were based out of Orlando.

I don't think Milwaukee International is going to have any air carriers left.

I've already rebooked my March trip from Midwest to AirTran when the Midwest flights were canceled yesterday. For October, I'm still on Midwest but there is probably a 50/50 chance my flights then will be canceled, too. For December, I'm actually double booked for our family trip both on Midwest and on AirTran hoping that ONE of them will fly and I'll end up with a refund or credits to use in the future on the other.

I never thought that getting to Florida would be the hard part of the trips as opposed to getting the DVC rooms and ADRs for meals that we want!

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

I'm a little confused. Didn't you see this coming.

It has been all over the news since January - when oil began it's unrelentless climb. The airlines began to warn us of changes in March and April.....and here we are now.

The sad thing, as I have said before, there is about a six-week lag time between oil prices and increased prices at the pump (or at the airline's pump).

June 4th the crude oil price closed at $122 p/barrel....last week it peaked at $146 a barrel (although down later in the weekend).

That's a pretty big increase for the airlines to absorb.

I don't really want everyone to present me with the doom and gloom nameplate again.......but these sad, expensive and frustrating changes probably will not improve in the next few months.

I think Winston Churchill said it right.......It's not the beginning of the end, it's the end of the beginning.