Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 8, 1994 TAG: 9403080171
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
USAir Chairman Seth E. Schofield confirmed Monday that meetings have been scheduled between company officials and union leaders.
The announcement came as Schofield reported that bad weather and growing competition have saddled his airline with an expected $200 million pretax loss for the first quarter of this year.
And, he said, British Airways has decided it will not invest any more money in USAir until it cuts costs.
At the current rate, Schofield said, USAir's losses this year will top last year's $350 million.
"While storms in January and February forced us to cancel about 8 percent of our scheduled operations, the principal cause of our unacceptable loss is the requirement to sharply lower fares in response to the steady expansion of low-cost carriers into many of our East Coast markets," Schofield said.
British Airways paid $400 million for a 24 percent stake in USAir and has said it wants to increase its stake to 44 percent by investing an additional $450 million over the next five years.
But British Airways officials have grown increasingly concerned over losses at USAir at a time when other big U.S. airlines appeared to be returning to financial health.
The British Airways announcement comes 10 days before a deadline for U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena to say whether he will approve an extension of a "code-sharing" arrangement through which USAir and British Airways channel passengers to one another under a mutual flight number to simplify connecting service.
Monday, British Airways began a pair of daily round-trip flights between Roanoke Regional Airport and London's Gatwick Airport. One set of flights connects through Charlotte, N.C., and the other through Baltimore, with the domestic legs of the flight operated with USAir planes.
by CNB