Rising Fuel Costs Lead To Lay-Offs

American Airlines is being forced to lay off about 1,500 workers due to high cost of fuel.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - American Airlines executives say 1,300 aircraft mechanics and 200 managers and support workers will be laid off from the company's maintenance organization. The announcement came as executives in American's Maintenance & Engineering division met at the company's offices in Fort Worth yesterday -- a day after American's parent, AMR Corporation, reported a second-quarter loss of 1.45 billion dollars. The company earlier announced furloughs of 900 flight attendants and 200 pilots as the high cost of fuel has reduced flight numbers. American employs 7,000 mechanics and other workers in Tulsa,1,900 in Fort Worth and 900 in Kansas City, Missouri, as well as several thousand at various line maintenance stations.