American to cut more jobs

DALLAS – Many more job cuts, likely totaling more than 6,000, are likely at American Airlines as the nation’s biggest airline hunkers down and tries to survive record high fuel costs.

American notified its flight attendants union Wednesday that it will cut up to 900 jobs starting Aug. 31, but that appears to be the tip of the iceberg.

Although American has not given a total figure, the airline says it expects to shed 8 percent of its work force. With about 85,500 workers, including those at sister airline American Eagle, that would represent more than 6,800 jobs.

American plans to cut domestic capacity 11 percent to 12 percent this fall. Overall, including international flying, that translates to a pullback of about 8 percent.

The company said last week that it would cut management and support staff jobs by about 8 percent in September.

American parent AMR Corp. lost $328 million in the first quarter of this year, and the second quarter got off to an even worse start when American grounded its MD-80 fleet for safety inspections. More than 3,000 flights were canceled, costing the airline tens of millions of dollars in lost ticket sales.