Pension fund to be dissolved

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Monday, March 3, 2003 | 9:51 a.m.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A federal judge ruled over the weekend that US Airways could dissolve its pilots' union pension fund as it seeks to reorganize under bankruptcy protection. The airline called on its pilots union to negotiate a new pension plan, but the union said it was examining its legal options.

The ruling, which could have wider implications in the struggling airline industry, was issued late Saturday by Judge Stephen Mitchell in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Alexandria, Va.

US Airways, the nation's seventh-largest carrier, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last summer. It maintained that it could not afford to pay its pension obligations, which will reach $1.6 billion over the next seven years, and return to viability in the competitive airline industry.