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Continental Airlines to cut jobs, capacity
DALLAS -- Continental Airlines said Thursday it is cutting 3,000 jobs and reducing capacity by 11 percent, citing record fuel costs that have pushed the industry into its worst crisis since 2001. It also said its two top executives will forgo pay for the rest of the year.
The job cuts represent about 6.5 percent of the company's work force of 45,000.
Houston-based Continental said it will begin pulling back on flights in September, when departures on its mainline operations will drop about 16 percent below September 2007 levels. Fourth-quarter capacity will fall 11 percent.
The company also said Chairman and Chief Executive Lawrence Kellner and President Jeff Smisek will not take salaries or incentive pay for the rest of the year.
Verizon to buy Alltel
WASHINGTON -- Even more people will be able to hear Verizon Wireless now after the company announced Thursday that it had agreed to buy Alltel Corp. for $5.9 billion plus a mound of debt.
By acquiring Alltel, Verizon Wireless would leapfrog AT T Inc. to become the nation's largest cellular carrier.
But consumers might not like the sound of another wireless provider biting the dust.
"There's not enough aggressive competition in the wireless industry as it is, and this would take out one of the better players," said Bob Williams, a telecommunications expert at Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. Alltel has scored high in the magazine's surveys of wireless providers. |
