June 23--Southwest Airlines is outsourcing the jobs of 12 AirTran Airways employees who load planes at Richmond International Airport.
(Editor's note: The Transportation Workers Union says the airline plans to outsource 20 percent of its ground handling jobs. Last week, union members staged a protest at Midway International Airport and handed out leaflets to passengers to gain public support for opposing the plan.
However, Paul Flaningan, spokesman for Southwest, told us Monday, June 25, that both sides are currently at the negotiating table and talk of any "plan" is premature.
"These talks are dynamic and proposals are still in the process of being exchanged, so it would be premature to discuss these negotiations," Flaningan stated in an email. "Southwest remains committed to negotiating a contract that protects job stability and benefits of our dedicated ramp, operations, provisioning and freight agents, while at the same time protecting Southwest's long-term profitability."
Southwest does have relatively high labor costs, industry analysts say. Competing legacy airlines have gone through bankruptcies and been able to reduce labor expenses, putting pressure on the Dallas-based Southwest to make reductions.
More national news here and commentary, including a link to a December 2011 employe memo from Southwest CEO Gary Kelly outlining the airline's challenges, here.)
The workers have been offered transfers to eight other AirTran stations, according to Southwest spokesman Paul Flaningan in Dallas.
He could not say how many of the workers, whose jobs at RIC will end Aug. 15, had opted to transfer to another station.
"The deadline for impacted employees to make a decision is July 2," Flaningan said, and it "would be premature to confirm any number until that deadline passes."
Ramp outsourcing is not new at RIC, where more than half of the air-carrier flights use non-airline ramp contractors, according to the Capital Region Airport Commission.
AirTran uses contract "rampers" at some of its smaller stations, Flaningan said. The changes are not expected to affect AirTran's customer service agents at RIC.
Southwest bought AirTran, a smaller low-cost carrier, in 2011.
While the schedule for transitioning from AirTran to long-sought Southwest service here is "fluid," Flaningan said, "We are committed to Richmond. This is a business decision that was made with an eye to long-term viability and profitability of that station."
AirTran now has five daily flights at RIC -- four to and from Atlanta and one to Orlando -- and carries about 10 percent of the airport's 3.2 million annual passengers.
Officials expect that Southwest's entry into the Richmond market will expand the number of destinations conveniently available to RIC passengers while helping hold down ticket prices.
Southwest says its average passenger fare is $141.72 one-way, and the average passenger trip length is 939 miles.
The ramp-worker outsourcing at RIC should not be linked to Southwest's eventual service in Richmond, Flaningan said.
Troy Bell, Richmond International's director of marketing and air service development, concurred, saying "the impact on service and schedule is, in my opinion, essentially neutral."
"You can pretty much bet on Richmond being a major Southwest city," aviation consultant Michael Boyd, president of Boyd Group International in Evergreen, Colo., said. "That's one gold mine they're not going to abandon."
Copyright 2012 - Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
