news4jax.com
February 1, 2012

JIA travelers should not see changes yet

The airline industry was shaken up Wednesday after American Airlines announced its plans to lay off about 13,000 employees in an effort to restructure the company's finances.

"Oh wow yes I'm very surprised," traveler Dreama Gardner said. "I thought they were doing good."

Travelers who left on American Airline flights from JIA Wednesday didn't notice any problems. They won't see any changes for awhile for now.

American said it is working through bankruptcy and negotiating with unions. The company told Channel 4 in a statement: "For the foreseeable future, it's business as usual in Jacksonville."

"I think fuel costs. They rent their planes. They don't own them. Profit margins are terrible," said traveler, Robert Laidlaw.

"We're going to look at increasing our flying in our five major markets. Significant things our high value customers value most," said American Airlines spokesman, Bruce Hicks.

Source: http://bit.ly/wSp7Xa