US Airways / Pittsburgh has lost 10,000 and about 460 daily flights since summer 2001

US Airways CEO Doug Parker’s is forging a legacy in aviation, rising in a little more than a decade from chief executive of a small airline to soon-to-be head of the world’s biggest carrier, but his success stirs up some animosity in Pittsburgh.

Parker is poised to take over the reins of the new airline that will be created when bankrupt American Airlines, the third biggest carrier, completes its merger with fifth-largest US Airways sometime this summer. US Airways shareholders approved the deal on July 12.

But Pittsburgh, which lost 10,000 US Airways jobs and about 460 daily flights since summer 2001, stands to lose again — and the airline workers, political leaders and others feel betrayed.

“We’re the ones who put (Parker) in a profitable position to make a run after American with the sacrifices our people and all the labor groups made coming out of bankruptcy,” said Frank Schifano, general chairman of the International Association of Machinists District 142, Pittsburgh, which represents US Airways aircraft maintenance workers.

Workers say US Airways attained the financial health for Parker to strike the American deal from employees’ $3 billion in wage and benefit cuts, plus widespread job losses, from bankruptcies in 2002 and 2004. The airline’s aircraft maintenance workers in Pittsburgh, for example, fell from more than 3,000 in 2002 to about 700 in 2005.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via CEO Parker Turned His Back On Sacrifices – AviationPros.com.