US Airways sets closing of center
Era to end in late Aug. because of merger: 650 jobs lost in region
For decades, dispatchers, routers and others in Pittsburgh have helped commercial flights operated by US Airways and its predecessors navigate the nation’s skies. But it’s an era that soon will end, taking about 650 jobs with it.
As part of the merger with US Airways, American Airlines will officially shut down a state-of-theart flight operations control center in Moon by the end of August and transfer the work to a new facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
The last flight to be handled by the Pittsburgh center is set for Aug. 23, said Danny Persuit, president of Transport Workers Union Local 545, which represents about 180 employees.
“It’s going to be a sad day, I’ll tell you that much,” he said.
Matt Miller, an American spokesman, said Pittsburgh operations workers who are transferring to Fort Worth will move into the new center Aug. 20-24. The American employees who have been working in Dallas-Fort Worth will move into the new space Aug. 14-16.
He confirmed the Aug. 23 date for the last Moon dispatched flight. The new facility in Fort Worth will be up and running the
same day.
American announced last year that it would be closing the Moon center and consolidating flight operations in Fort Worth over a period of 18 months but did not set a date.
However, the airline last month notified the state that the local jobs would be eliminated by Aug. 30.
Mr. Miller said more than half of the 650 employees who work at the Moon center will relocate to Fort Worth.
Others, according to Mr. Persuit, will retire or be given severance packages equaling as much as a year’s pay. Still others will get 15 weeks pay. They also could go back to work in the future if there is an opening, although they would have to relocate.
While the fate of the center has been known for some time, the reality of its closing is just now hitting home, Mr. Persuit said.
“It’s sinking in,” he said. “The good thing is we’ve got so many of the dispatchers going down. We’re not going alone. The bad thing is many of them raised their families here who weren’t from here, and they called Pittsburgh their home.”
Mr. Persuit said he felt “terrible” about the closing of the Moon center. Crews from Pittsburgh, he said, have been helping planes cross the skies for close to half a century in four different buildings.
“The office has been in Pittsburgh for more than 50 years. It’s been very productive. It’s been home to many people and families,” he said.
The 72,000-square-foot, $32 million Moon center was built exclusively for US Airways less than seven years ago, with Pittsburgh outbidding Charlotte, N.C., and Phoenix for the right.
It combined a center in Findlay that US Airways had operated for 11 years and a smaller one in Phoenix, the result of the carrier’s 2005 merger with America West Airlines. It was constructed with the help of $3.75 million in state aid.
Mr. Persuit said there will be an employee appreciation day at the center today. Most workers wanted to stay in Pittsburgh, but “you got to where the job is. That’s the nature of the industry,” he said, noting that some were forced to relocate here from other cities in the past.
One who will not be relocating is Gary Menges, a dispatch coordinator. At nearly 63 years of age, “I don’t want to go through with it,” he said.
Mr. Menges is one of the employees who will receive 15 weeks pay plus a chance to go back to work in the future if there is an opening. He called the package a “joke. It’s an option you have but who’s really going to use the option?” he asked.
“It’s a cheap way of getting out for the company,” he continued, adding he plans to take the 15 weeks of pay and then retire.
The center’s closing, he said, will have repercussions for the region.
“A lot of houses are being sold, a lot of people are being uprooted,” he said. “A lot of people are quitting early because they don’t want to go down [to Fort Worth]. That’s sad but that’s the way it is.”