Pamela A. MacLean

Bankrupt American Airlines is being pressed to preserve the pension plans for the airline’s 130,000 workers and retirees while it undergoes bankruptcy restructuring.

The director of the federal agency that oversees corporate pensions issued a statement this week calling on the airline not to duck its pension commitments. “We think that commitments to 130,000 workers and retirees shouldn’t be disposable,” said Josh Gotbaum, director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which insures private pensions.

American’s lawyer has said publicly that the company needs to kill its pensions in order to be competitive with other major carriers.

But Gotbaum fired off his response Tuesday, reminding AMR Corp., which filed for bankruptcy in November, that other major carriers didn’t jettison their pensions. Delta Airlines maintained its non-pilots plan through bankruptcy and Northwest and Continental kept their plans going after bankruptcies.

“American has more than $4 billion in cash; some of that money should already have been paid into its pension plans,” Gotbaum said. “However, Congress, hoping to preserve plans, allowed American to defer the payments. It would be a tragedy if American repaid Congrss’s generosity by turning around and killing the plans anyway,” he said.

Many Americans may recall U.S. Airways pilot “Sully” Sullenberger III for his 2009 rescue of 155 passengers by landing his plan on New York’s Hudson River after his aircraft lost power from striking birds after takeoff.

Sullenberger had seen his own pension and salary slashed 40 percent through two US Airways bankruptcies. He and many pilots like him, in their late 40s or 50s, face dire consequences if they lose pension protections because they have so few work years left to make up the losses.

The PBGC protects pension benefits for 44 million Americans in 27,000 private-sector pensions. It is financed through the insurance premiums paid by companies and assets and recoveries from failed pensions.

But even for those under PBGC’s wing, there are limits on pension payments and many employees find their pensions reduced if the PBGC must take them over.