Delta Air Lines is to suspend flights from JFK to Dublin and Shannon from November 1st until March 15th next year.
The announcement came yesterday as the human and financial toll of the September 11th World Trade Centre attacks continued to be felt in lost jobs and plummeting earnings throughout North America. Delta, the third-largest US airline, announced lay-offs of up to 13,000 employees and a 15 per cent reduction in flight schedules.
Like other airlines that have cut a total of 84,000 jobs since the attack, the Atlanta-based firm blamed an expected substantial decline in revenue through next year in the wake of sharply reduced demand for air travel. Delta chief executive Mr Leo Mullin, who said that he would forego his salary for the remainder of 2001, said Delta was also slowing down its jet acquisitions from plane-maker Boeing.
In Toronto, Air Canada said that along with its regional airline Air Canada Regional, it would cut 9,000 jobs, scale back its flight schedule by 20 per cent and ground 84 aircraft.
The firm had originally planned to cut 4,000 jobs in August but increased that number "as a result of the impact of the September 11th attack on the US", according to Mr Robert Milton, Air Canada president and chief executive.
The lay-offs were a difficult choice, "but the catastrophic events of September 11th and their unprecedented impact on the airline industry have left Air Canada, like every other large global carrier, with little choice". Another casualty of the changed attitudes to air travel was Textron, a maker of executive planes and helicopters, which said it would cut production in coming months and lay off 2,500 workers. The Rhode Island company makes Bell helicopters, Cessna planes and golf carts.
On Wall Street, a number of big finance houses reported a decline in quarterly profits on plummeting investment banking and stock trading revenues. Goldman Sachs's profits declined 43 per cent and said the effects of the terrorist attacks would weaken short-term operating conditions.
Morgan Stanley reported a 41 per cent decline in quarterly earnings last week. "We are very confident about the long-term outlook for our business, but believe that the immediate impact (of the attacks) will be a further weakening in the operating environment and a delay in the economic recovery," Goldman Sachs chief executive Henry Paulson said.
On the stock market investors retreated after staging a two-day recovery, with the Dow Jones Industrial Index closing 92.58 weaker, or 1.07 per cent, at 8,567.39.
