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Soaring Fuel Prices Force Another US Airline to Slash Planes, Flights, Staff


Continental Airlines says soaring prices for jet fuel are forcing it to slash 3,000 jobs from its 45,000-person workforce, retire some old, inefficient planes, and cut flights.

Thursday's announcement by Continental follows similar drastic actions by rival carriers Delta, United, and American.

Continental officials say fuel prices are up 75 percent in a year, fundamentally "shifting the economics" of the business.

Top Continental executives will not take their salaries for the rest of this year, and will forgo bonuses.

The carrier will cut 67 older model planes from its fleet of 375 planes, and replace some of them with newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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