American Airlines sends thousands of layoff notices Mary Altaffer / AP American Airlines has told over 11,000 workers they could lose their jobs as part of its reorganization. American Airlines has told over 11,000 workers they could lose their jobs as part of its reorganization in bankruptcy. However, the U.S. airline, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November, said it expects that fewer than 40 percent of those it sent notices to, or 4,400 people, will actually be laid off in November and December. The job cut notifications come as a result of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires workers to be told about major layoffs or plant closures 60 days in advance. Jamie Horwitz, a spokesman for the Transport Workers Union, a representative for workers that received WARN Act notices said the layoff notices "will look worse than the actual layoffs." Horwitz said about 800 employees had agreed to leave American voluntarily, a move that will further reduce the number of expected layoffs. American said in February it planned to cut up to 14,000 jobs as part of a plan to slim down its operations in bankruptcy. American also said it is cutting flights by one to two percent for the rest of September and October. The cuts are partly due to an increase in pilot sick days and greater maintenance reports by flight crews led to flight cancellations and delays, Hicks said. American operates about 1,700 flights a day. According to flight tracking service FlightAware.com, over the past two weeks American Airlines has canceled more flights than any other major U.S. airline.