Airline pilots brace for downsizing, career change

By Kyle Peterson

CHICAGO (Reuters) - United Airlines pilot Todd Coomans has yet to fully recover from a painful furlough five years ago that set his airline career back several years and, along the way, also cost him his marriage.

Now the 46-year-old first officer, who returned to United just a year and a half ago, is bracing for another layoff. And this time he thinks the prospects are even worse.

"I can't believe I'm going through it again," said Coomans, who now may look for work in China.

Coomans is convinced he will be among the 950 pilots that United, a unit of UAL Corp, will eliminate as part of a downsizing effort that the No. 2 U.S. carrier hopes will offset skyrocketing fuel prices.

"This is all I've done my adult life. I love flying," Coomans said. "I don't know if I can do this up and down every few years."

The last time he was furloughed, he found work at an air charter company. But the sudden job loss put such a strain on his marriage that it ended in divorce.

Coomans and his colleagues are not alone. While UAL, which plans to cut up to 1,600 jobs, is the first big airline to detail the impact of cuts on pilots, layoffs are planned at all major carriers as they try to offset record-high fuel prices.

AMR Corp's American Airlines said in May staff cuts were coming, and said on Wednesday it would shed 900 flight attendants. Continental Airlines Inc plans to cut 3,000 jobs and US Airways Group Inc plans 1,700 cuts.

Delta Air Lines Inc, which plans to merge with Northwest Airlines, said earlier this year it would eliminate 2,000 jobs. Northwest also expects job cuts.

Downsizing may be the last hope for airlines to avoid potential devastation as fuel costs threaten to negate the progress they made during years of restructuring.

Fuel costs -- linked to record-high oil prices -- have more than offset a series of fare hikes that led to profits in 2006 and 2007 after five years of losses. The Air Transport Association sees a $10 billion loss for airlines this year.

WHERE TO GO?

Clearly, it's as gloomy a time as anyone who works at a major U.S. airline can remember.

Thousands of workers -- from management down to baggage handlers -- face imminent job cuts and a terrible job market. Many airline employees will have to switch careers.

But some employees, like pilots and flight attendants, are in a particularly tight spot because their careers are so closely connected to seniority at a single airline, which dictates pay, work rules, and routes they are assigned to fly.