Possible Airways Strike Affects Spring Breakers

Some Harvard students planning to fly to sunny destinations for spring break might have to make other travel plans if an airline strike proceeds this weekend.

US Airways has threatened to suspend service if its flight attendants strike, a likely scenario if the two parties cannot reach a labor agreement by 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning.

The airline, the sixth largest in the nation, and its flight attendants have been negotiating since Friday to settle a three-year long contract dispute.

If the carrier does shut down service, it will leave student spring break travel plans in jeopardy.

"I had a ticket for Saturday morning, but that's when the strike is, so I tried to switch to a flight earlier in the week," said Taylor R. Terry '03, who needs to get home to Fort Meyers, Fla. "All the flights were totally booked for any time this week."

Instead, Terry has opted to leave two days earlier by taking a shuttle to JFK International Airport and then transferring to a start-up airline, which will fly him to Tampa. The drive from Tampa to Terry's hometown is two and a half hours.

"Basically, it will take me twelve hours to do what's normally a five-hour trip," he said.

Michael J. Rest '00 was planning to fly to Florida next Tuesday with his three other roommates. He called US Airways and spoke to a representative, who informed him that he could cancel his tickets and receive a full refund or simply take a gamble that the airline would fly.

"She told me that she couldn't release the airline's contingency plan until the strike actually happens, because of the union and the labor laws," Rest said. "All other flights were either booked, or too expensive. Now we're looking into taking Amtrak; we don't need to make [train] reservations until the last minute."

According to a press release issued by Amtrak yesterday, the railroad plans to honor the US Airways tickets of all passengers who may be left stranded should the airline shut down on Saturday.

Additionally, Amtrak will also run more trains, increasing available seats by up to 1,500, or 10 percent more than it usually offers on its weekday trains that operate between Boston, New York and Washington.

But for Rest and his roommates, an Amtrak trip will take 33 hours.

"If we do take the train down, we're going to gamble that we'll be able to fly back," he said.

According to Rick Weintraub, press spokesperson for US Airways, the carrier hasn't made contingency plans a priority. "Right now, our energies are totally focused on getting an agreement, in which case there is no need for a contingency plan."

Instead, Weintraub suggested that concerned students call their travel agent or contact the US Airways reservation office. "The key point is that everybody's situation can be a little different so it's hard to give just one solution," he said.

According to US Airways Executive Vice President Lawrence Nagin, the carrier has planned to make alternative arrangements for passengers or compensate them on a case-by-case basis should problems arise.

If a strike does occur, the union has said that attendants probably would not walk off the job en masse. Rather, they would target selected routes with impromptu walkouts that could surprise management and passengers.

But Weintraub said the carrier will do what everything it can to avoid "random chaos."

Weintraub declined to comment on the state of the negotiations, citing restrictions imposed by the National Mediation Board, the body that oversees transportation disputes in the labor industries.

The last time a labor dispute shut down a major airline was in 1998, when Northwest Airlines' pilots went on strike.

--The Associated Press contributed to the reporting of this story.