US Airways Outlines Turnaround

October 19, 2004
US Airways, hoping to outfly extinction, has unveiled its turnaround plan. The company says that in February, it will revamp its hubs, expand its schedule and reduce turnaround time between flights.

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It will also cut its employee's pay by 21% percent through at least Feb. 15. A federal bankruptcy court okayed the involuntary pay cuts last week and also gave US Air until mid-January to work out its financing plans during bankruptcy.

US Airways, which has for years had the highest cost structure of any domestic airline, is trying to reinvent itself as a low-cost carrier in a white-knuckle attempt to compete with the likes of JetBlue, ATA and Southwest.

Besides cutting costs, it is revamping its route structure to emphasize point-to-point flying, rather than the more expensive hub-and-spoke system that gained popularity after airline deregulation.

Highlights of the company's plan:

• More International Flights Beginning in February, US Airways will expand its flights to Latin America and the Caribbean, operating from the modern but underutilized Fort Lauderdale, Fla., airport. The ailing airline will double its daily departures from Fort Lauderdale, to 54.

• Philadelphia Changes Flights from the airline's hub in Philadelphia will grow by 7% to 495 by February. Instead of the current hub-and-spoke operation, where large numbers of flights arrive and depart at more or less the same time, US Air will space out its flights, enabling faster turarounds and making it possible for ground workers to handle more flights.

• More Seats from DCA The company is rejiggering the aircraft flown on various routes, freeing up larger regional jets to fly out of Washington's Reagan National Airport, where the number of daily departures is tightly controlled. By using bigger jets, US Air will increase capacity from Reagan by 40%.

• Boston, NY Changes Boston Logan and New York's La Guardia will also get bigger planes, and thus more capacity. US Air said it will "alter the timing" of its Shuttle flights between Boston, New York and Washington. It didn't specify what those alterations might be. The flights have traditionally operated hourly during the business day.

Schedules are also being cut back at Pittsburgh and Charleston, the airline's other two hubs.

Like other East Coast airlines, US Airways has been prone to delays caused by bad weather in both winter and summer. Snow and fog in the winter and thunderstorms in the summer have routinely disrupted operations at its hubs. The point-to-point schedules may help alleviate some of those problems.

Based in Arlington, Va., US Airways is the nation's seventh largest carrier.

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