PRATTVILLE, Ala. -- US Airways Chief Executive Officer Bruce Lakefield yesterday apologized for the carrier's recent decision to strip the city of its hub status.

	Julie Bennett, Montgomery Advertiser via AP US Airways Chief Executive Officer Bruce Lakefield said yesterday that Pittsburgh remains important to the carrier, despite stripping it of its hub status. Click photo for larger image.

In his first public comments since the decision was announced two weeks ago, Lakefield said Pittsburgh International Airport is too expensive and the local traffic is too small for the money-losing company to keep everything in place.

"I am sorry to the people of Pittsburgh, but the survival of the airline comes first to me," Lakefield said after the airline's annual meeting, held at a hotel-and-resort in Prattville, one of the many investments in the state made by the Alabama pension fund that owns a controlling stake in US Airways.

Under a new plan designed to return US Airways to profitability, Pittsburgh would lose flights, service and perhaps jobs as early as this fall while the carrier turns its attention to more East Coast flying, connecting many of its passengers through the two remaining hubs of Charlotte, N.C., and Philadelphia.

Even though "Pittsburgh is still very important to us," Lakefield said travelers do not enjoy connecting through hubs en route to their final destination, preferring a straight point-to-point shot instead.

Lakefield, who took the airline's top job less than a month ago, also tried to reassure Pittsburghers that US Airways would continue to be a major carrier at Pittsburgh International. "It is not like we are pulling out; we just have to survive."

A US Airways marketing executive, senior vice president Ben Baldanza, went so far as to say that losing a hub and becoming instead a "focus city" is not a "negative thing" for southwestern Pennsylvania. He argued that US Airways will continue flying to the "places people in Pittsburgh want to go for fares they want to pay. If you live in Pittsburgh, the schedule will be pretty good," he said.

Pressed for details on specific cutbacks in Pittsburgh, executives said there will likely be a reduction in service to some smaller, outlying airports in Midwestern cities such as Evansville, Ind., where there's not significant leisure or business travel.

They also said that the amount of cuts in flights could depend on how much the airport's debt is ultimately reduced, and that the future of Pittsburgh's maintenance base could be linked to the company's ability to bring its costs down further.

"We don't have a finalized view in our mind of how Pittsburgh ends up looking," Baldanza said.

Lakefield, meeting with shareholders and reporters yesterday, played up his persona as the nice guy, saying again and again that he hoped to preserve as many jobs as he possibly can and that a possible sale of airline assets is off the table as the company tries to wring an additional $800 million in cost savings from employees this summer.

He urged the company's labor unions, who represent most of its 28,000 employees, to deal with him cooperatively. If "we don't go [that route], that is not my choice. That is their choice. The pressure is on all of us to get it done."

Airline executives said the goal is to get new union contracts ratified by August and implemented by September, but so far, only the pilots have agreed to new talks. The company earlier this week requested $300 million in annual cuts from them. It also is expected to ask machinists for $120 million and flight attendants for $100 million.

One employee traveled to Alabama yesterday to protest the company's recent actions, holding up signs reading "Dr. Bronner and Mr. Lakefield, 26,000 Families Depend On You" and "No Golden Parachute." David Bronner is US Airways' chairman and head of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, the $25 billion pension fund that owns 38 percent of the airline.

The employee, 55-year-old Charlotte parts machinist Gene Blackshear, stood in the back of the room and afterwards complained about the $4.5 million severance payment awarded to former CEO David Siegel, who resigned last month. "Why should he profit when we are bleeding to death?" he said.

Bronner, in a news conference afterward, mentioned the lone employee several times, countering Blackshear's complaints by saying that he is not taking any salary as a board chairman, that Lakefield would not be taking a "golden parachute" and that the CEO would make a salary comparable to what he might make at a low-cost carrier.

At a subsequent board meeting, Lakefield was awarded a $425,000 salary, but the board also gave him 760,000 shares of stock and a severance agreement that provides him the equivalent of three years base salary and bonus if the company is sold and he loses his job. That's different from a golden parachute, the company contended, because the acquiring company would have to pay the benefit, not US Airways.

Lakefield also is declining to participate in the company's 401(k) plan or its management incentive compensation program until the company becomes profitable. He also will operate as an "at-will," employee, meaning he can be fired at any time.

How long he will be at the company is unknown, with Lakefield saying he is here to "bridge the gap" between current losses and future profits.

Bronner and Lakefield stood side-by-side in front of shareholders and the media.

Both referred indirectly to Siegel several times yesterday, with Bronner calling new management's relationship with labor "credible" and Lakefield saying US Airways has "what I call normal human beings trying to work out a problem."

What happens if unions do not agree to new cuts? Could the firm file for bankruptcy again, as it hinted in a recent filing?

Bronner said he is focused only on new agreements with labor. "I'll do whatever I have to do," he said.

But, as Lakefield said, "The piggy bank is only so big. We are running out of time and money."