Airline struggles and declining imports at the Port of Oakland lead to job cuts

In today’s SF Chronicle:

Most of the reductions will be made by reining in the port’s capital improvement program, such as suspending plans to build a third terminal at Oakland International Airport. The airport soon will have lost six carriers this year as Aloha, ATA and Skybus all went bankrupt and Continental, American and Taca (an El Salvador airline) have ceased or plan to cease operations there shortly.

“We’re projecting a 20 percent reduction in passenger seats next year and a 14 percent reduction in passengers,” Schaaf said.

Affected employees will be notified Aug. 15. Most port employees are represented by unions, so bumping and reversion rights will come into play, which may slightly affect the exact number of reductions, Schaaf said.

The port will cut 47 jobs from its 92-position engineering department and lop another 46 slots from its 176-job support staff, Schaaf said. Only seven positions will be cut from the maritime, aviation and commercial real estate divisions.

Ouch.