US Airways' Rehiring Spree

A US Airways spokesman said service at the three foreign facilities has gradually improved, and that all three will continue to be used, but some of their call volume will be redirected. When the hiring is completed by the end of the year, US Airways will employ 2,400 reservations agents in the U.S.

Reservations are not the only area where the new US Airways has reduced its reliance on outsourcing. The company has also brought several America West Boeing 757s into Pittsburgh for heavy maintenance that had been scheduled to be done by a third-party vendor. And it has hired about 100 information technology workers; US Airways had outsourced much of its IT work to EDS.

Parker stressed that he is not opposed to outsourcing; in fact, all of America West's heavy aircraft maintenance work is outsourced. "America West has always outsourced some maintenance, just because we didn't have the infrastructure to do a lot of it inside," he said. "US Airways now does some of each. What we're finding is that work that's being done by our own people, no surprise to us, is being done better than by a third-party vendor."

He credited the intensive cost-cutting at the former US Airways for making it feasible to bring work back. "The lesson here is that when you get to where pay scales are outside of market rates, jobs go outside," he said. "But when you can do stuff inhouse close to as efficiently as it can be done outside, you would always prefer to have it done inside."

Because outsourcing has declined, the airline economy has improved and the merger has gone well, job loss from the combination of the two companies has been far less than expected. Although the merger was initially projected to result in the loss of roughly 5,000 jobs, only about 1,000 to 2,000 workers have been let go, Parker said. US Airways today employs about 35,000 workers, about the same as the combined total at the two predecessor airlines. Recently, the airline recalled 55 pilots and 203 flight attendants.