American Airlines Won’t Be Cutting More Pilots April 1 After All

American Airlines Inc. told its pilots Friday that the carrier won’t have to furlough any pilots April 1 as feared.

With the carrier continuing to reduce capacity, American warned in January that it would need to furlough up to 175 pilots in 2010. It laid off 78 pilots on Feb. 28 and expected to send more out the door on April 1.

However, the plans have changed as the carrier re-evaluated how many pilots it would need compared with the number it had.

In a statement, American said it had continued to work with the Allied Pilots Association on ways to mitigate the layoffs. It also had looked at “attrition rates and a number of other variables that affect our staffing.”

As a result, officials “have determined that the total number of necessary furloughs is lower than we previously thought,” American said.

“We regret having to furlough any of our valued pilots, and are very happy that we were able to avoid additional furloughs,” it said.

In a message to pilots sent out Friday, American executive Mark Hettermann said chief pilots at each base were “sharing the good news” with pilots who had been scheduled for an April 1 furlough.

“I know that the possibility of a furlough causes significant uncertainty for those directly impacted. Because of that, furloughing pilots is always a last resort, which we avoid if at all possible,” said Hettermann, American’s vice president of flight.

“I’m sorry for the stress resulting from our earlier announcement, but I’m extremely pleased that we were able to avoid additional furloughs at this time,” he said.

The Feb. 28 furloughs were the first at American in nearly five years, even though the carrier has been shrinking its fleet and flying capacity since 2005.

Its 2009 capacity in available seat miles fell 7 percent from 2008 and 11 percent from 2007. For the first two months of 2010, its capacity is off another 3.4 percent compared to the same period in 2009.

American’s fleet, which sat at 699 planes on Dec. 31, 2005, dropped to 610 at the end of 2009.