The flight attendants' union says that because of job-sharing and other steps, American Airlines won't have to furlough 500 workers this spring.
American said two weeks ago that it planned to cut 500 flight attendants because it's flying less than it did a year ago.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants said Wednesday that the furloughs won't be needed because so many workers signed up for job-sharing and voluntary leave.
"We are pleased to announce that a number of flight attendants requested and were granted the voluntary options offered on February 1. With this, we hope to have the appropriate staffing levels to manage the current schedule and avoid furloughing flight attendants on April 1. As a reminder, our current flight attendant overage was unrelated to the Chapter 11 restructuring proposals but driven by previously-announced capacity reductions," said Missy Cousino, American Airlines Spokesperson.
Cousino's last statement means the good news is temporary. The furloughs were to be on top of 13,000 jobs that American still wants to eliminate in its reorganization plan.
American and parent AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in November.
