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Fitch: AMR Layoffs Will Affect Dallas-Fort Worth
Posted February 9, 2012
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NEW YORK--Fitch Ratings says there will be a noticeable impact from the pending American Airlines layoffs on the Dallas-Fort Worth region as a whole, but anticipates limited negative effects to individual cities given the breadth of the employment base.
American Airlines' parent company AMR has proposed reducing its overall workforce by 13,000 employees as part of a cost-cutting plan to allow it to emerge from bankruptcy. This action could result in the loss of several thousand jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. American Airlines and its regional affiliate, American Eagle, are, by far, the major carriers at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. In 2011 they accounted for approximately 85% of Dallas-Fort Worth's enplanements. American Airlines is also one of the largest employers in the region with roughly 25,000.
Over the past decade, the area has weathered the ebb and flow of the airline industry's fortunes. Fort Worth's unemployment rate climbed above 8% in 2003 due in part to layoffs at AMR. At the same time, the regional economy has continued to grow and diversify, with a labor force now exceeding three million. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA is the largest in the South and recorded a 7.1% unemployment rate in December of 2011, well below the U.S. average.
We believe that two of the proposed cuts have the potential to directly impact employment in the city of Fort Worth. The company's plan includes the closure of the Alliance Airport maintenance facility in Fort Worth that has approximately 1,200 employees. The company has also proposed reducing 1,400 management positions nationwide, and it is possible a majority of these layoffs could occur at corporate headquarters in Fort Worth. We expect the impact of other proposed cuts, such as those to Dallas-Fort Worth airport-based maintenance staff, to be spread around a number of communities in the metropolitan area.
Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com.
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