Pilots to Meet With Eastern but It May Be Too Late to Save Jobs

NEW YORK —  Pilots union officials are to meet this weekend with Eastern Airlines’ management and the airline’s court-appointed bankruptcy examiner in a renewed effort to reach a contract agreement ending their walkout against the company.

However, striking pilots who want to come back to work may find that they have already been bumped from their jobs, Eastern Chairman Frank Lorenzo said Friday in an interview.

Lorenzo said any returning strikers would find that most of the available jobs at the new, scaled-down Eastern have been filled by 300 pilots who crossed picket lines, about 500 newly hired pilots and by others who will complete training in the weeks ahead.

Eastern is negotiating with its creditors on its plan to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings as a scaled-down carrier that would ultimately require only about 1,700 pilots, compared to the 3,600 Eastern employed before the strike.

The unions, on the other hand, are backing a buyout bid for Eastern led by Chicago commodities trader Joseph Ritchie. His plan is presumed to involve restoration of all of Eastern’s pre-strike operations.

Eastern’s pilots and flight attendants refused to cross picket lines set up by the airline’s machinists, who walked out March 4. The company sought bankruptcy court protection from creditors March 9.

This weekend, the airline is gearing up to almost triple its daily schedule. It operated 79 flights a day this week but plans to begin 226 daily flights beginning Sunday. Before the strike, Eastern operated 1,030 flights a day.

“The real game is being played out with the consumers, with the traveling public,” Lorenzo said. “Eastern is re-emerging as a quality airline.”

The airline has cut fares sharply to attract passengers, selling one-way tickets from Atlanta to Orlando, Fla., for $39 and from Atlanta to California for $199.

“Normally I fly Delta, but this flight is a considerable savings, more than $200,” said passenger Steven Swoboda of Stone Mountain, Ga., on a recent Eastern flight from New York to Atlanta. “I’m not going to pay more just to go on Delta.”