Options eyed to keep American Airlines
TULSA-AREA OFFICIALS CONSIDER INCENTIVES PACKAGE
TULSA — Elected officials and business leaders are preparing possible incentive plans to help keep American Airlines’ 7,000employee maintenance base in Tulsa as the company progresses through reorganization bankruptcy.
Metro-area mayors, legislative and business leaders, union officials and state officeholders gathered Tuesday to pledge their support for the struggling airline, after parent company AMR Corp. filed bankruptcy in late November.
Area leaders have begun coordinating efforts to save the 56-year-old maintenance base, which could include expanded financial benefits for the Fort Worthbased airline company.
“We’ve been asking everybody about what might be available from their perspective,” Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett said. “Whatever happens, we want to be prepared to keep American Airlines here.”
American Airlines executives haven’t commented on the future of the maintenance base and other aspects of future operations as the company moves through bankruptcy. But before and since the filing, they have said they need to significantly cut labor costs to keep the company competitive.
Neither business leaders nor government officials have reported any contact with American Airlines executives since the bankruptcy filing five weeks ago, but the head of the Tulsa Metro Chamber said they want to be ready if the carrier reaches out.
“What I would look for is for everyone to develop a package they thought they could contribute when American Airlines senior executives ask for help,” said Mike Neal, president and CEO of the Tulsa Metro Chamber.
Bartlett reiterated that the effort should involve the region’s communities because fewer than 30 percent of the maintenance base’s employees reside within Tulsa’s city limits.
Mayors from Owasso, Broken Arrow, Jenks, Claremore and other cities pledged their support for keeping American Airlines from closing or significantly cutting employment at the facility.
American Airlines is already the recipient of several economic incentives for the base, including $22.3 million in capital improvements funding from Tulsa County’s Vision 2025 initiative, which voters passed in 2003.
American Airlines also received about $32.5 million in payroll tax reimbursements between 1995 and 2006 as part of the Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program.
In 2007, American received $5.7 million in state funds and $4.3 million in local funds to build an overhaul and repair hangar.
Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce and Tourism Dave Lopez said the state is investigating what kind of incentives might be available that would not require action by the Legislature.
“I don’t think we want to dismiss any options.” Lopez said. “But we might be able to help them out in cases where they want to upgrade equipment or facilities without going to the Legislature.”
State Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman and other legislative leaders also attended the meeting.
“We’re committed to doing everything we can to keep American Airlines here,” Bingman said.