Pilots Agree To Chat With Company Reps

Sometimes you just have to bear it and grin. Faced with the prospect that US Airways Group Inc. may have to sell assets to fly through its financial problems, leaders of its pilots union Tuesday grudgingly agreed to talks on reducing costs and boosting productivity. This tightening of the belt is all in the name of fighting off the many low-cost airlines trying to get a piece of US Air's piece of the action. 

The Air Line Pilots Association said its ruling council decided to engage in the talks, which could eventually lead to formal negotiations. This comes as good news during some dark days at the nation's seventh-largest carrier. The airline's corporate credit rating was lowered last week by Standard & Poor's Corp. on fears that its turnaround has stalled and that it may default on a $1 billion loan backed in large part by the federal government.

The Arlington (VA)-based carrier hasn't posted an operating profit since emerging from bankruptcy-court protection nearly 10 months ago, despite slashing its costs during its reorganization through employee concessions, restructured airplane leases and other drastic measures. As a result, US Airways contracted Morgan Stanley earlier this month to identify and value assets it could sell to help it get back into the black and avoid defaulting on the loan.

Hopefully, the talks between the union and management will help US Airways fly out of the nasty storm clouds. 

FMI: www.usairways.com