[Gerald A]

The airline will drop 64 Boeing 737s by the end of next year, and also remove six 747s, the paper said.

June 4, 2008

United Airlines plans to reduce its mainline fleet by another 70 aircraft by the end of 2009 and announce further job cuts, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday.

The airline is expected to announce the planned cuts to its fleet of 460 aircraft later on Wednesday, the paper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The airline will drop 64 Boeing 737s by the end of next year, and also remove six 747s, the paper said.

UAL will also announce additional cuts of salaried and management workers, with cuts of unionized positions to follow later, the paper said.

UAL said in April it would cut 500 salaried and management workers and eliminate 600 union jobs by the end of 2008. It had also said it would cut 30 aircraft.

The newspaper said while the move would help the Chicago-based airline to deal with surging fuel costs, it would result in furloughs of unionized workers and a major reduction in routes that may be less profitable.

The company is also expected to ditch its domestic leisure service Ted, which has 56 Airbus A320 aircraft, and restore first-class cabins in some of those planes, the WSJ said.

United and rival US Airways ended merger talks last month.

(Reuters)