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Airline won't pledge jobs
But the airline offered no guarantees.
"We did get some insight to what their operation would look like if they stay," Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey said Thursday. "We really did not get any guarantees as of yet. ... We're going to have to go back to them with a very specific request at the next meeting (in October)."
Roddey was among the officials who met privately Wednesday with US Airways representatives in Harrisburg. He said he couldn't be more specific about the airline's proposal, which hasn't been released.
US Airways wants a $500 million reduction in the $673 million owed to bondholders for the construction of Pittsburgh International. If the state agrees, the amount the airline pays each year to help retire the debt would drop dramatically. It now pays about $50 million a year.
Airline spokesman David Castelveter declined to discuss the specifics of the airline proposal, which calls for "new revenue sources" to cover the $500 million. The airline proposed specific methods of generating the new revenue, but neither Castelveter nor Roddey would discuss them.
Flight and employment guarantees at Pittsburgh International are of paramount importance to leaders of the unions that represent many of the carrier's 7,292 local employees. Unions fear the airline would replace higher-paying jobs linked to US Airways' big jets for lower-paying jobs that would be attached to the carrier's new small-jet service, called MidAtlantic Airways.
"We give them half a billion dollars and what do we get in exchange for that?" said Teddy Xidas, president of the local Association of Flight Attendants union. "That's my question."
Roddey has called for the airline to offer at least 150 big-jet flights a day and about 350 daily MidAtlantic flights. On Thursday, he declined to discuss the mix of flights proposed by US Airways. The airline now has 396 daily departures from Pittsburgh, including 122 big jets.
The airline has said job and flight guarantees would restrict its ability to react to fluctuations in the industry. In addition to Pittsburgh International, the carrier has hubs at Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C.
US Airways shocked county and airport officials on March 31, when it canceled its Pittsburgh International leases and contracts just before it exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The cancellation is effective Jan. 5, and US Airways Chief Executive David Siegel has said the carrier is "fully prepared to exit Pittsburgh" if it doesn't get a better deal.
Without US Airways, the region's economy would lose $1.8 billion a year and 17,000 jobs, according to an economic impact report commissioned by the airline and released Wednesday.
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