Still digging out from a paralyzing Christmas Eve meltdown that displaced thousands of bags and travelers, US Airways pledged yesterday to return all lost luggage by Friday and scrambled to prepare for the busy New Year's holiday.

Lake Fong, Post-Gazette A US Airways baggage handler checks the list after locating a piece of missing luggage at the Pittsburgh International Airport yesterday. His list contained 360 pieces of missing luggage that he was trying to find during his shift. Click photo for larger image.

The nation's seventh-largest airline, which blamed hundreds of holiday flight cancellations and 10,000 misplaced bags on bad weather and workers who called in sick, put out a call for employee volunteers to work New Year's Day in Philadelphia, the site of so much trouble last weekend. It also put union officials on notice that any repeat of what happened over Christmas will not be tolerated, promising to review employee attendance records and discipline any who abuse the system.

"Our customers and our employees expect everyone who is scheduled to work to show up," said US Airways spokesman Chris Chiames.

Meanwhile, the travel headaches continued yesterday at Pittsburgh International, as baggage trucked in from Philadelphia piled up inside the terminal and US Airways worked to connect the lost luggage with Pittsburgh-area travelers.

Across the country, a debate raged about who was at fault for US Airways' "operational meltdown," as airline chief executive Bruce Lakefield called it. The company blames the flight attendants and baggage handlers who called in sick, with Lakefield saying Sunday that the numbers were much higher than normal for that time of year.

But Teddy Xidas, president-elect of the flight attendants union, produced figures yesterday showing that the number of sick calls this year was similar to the calls during the same period last year. On Christmas Eve, for example, 238 flight attendants called in sick; last year, 261 did. On Christmas, 306 called in sick; last year, 298 did. On Dec. 27, the day after Christmas, 311 called in sick, compared to 265 last year.

Yesterday, 303 flight attendants called in sick, Xidas said, and last year the number was 314.

Xidas added that all airlines experience staffing shortages over the holidays and that US Airways should have been better prepared, as a result.

"Was it easier to blame labor?" she said. "What do they hope to gain by getting passengers mad at employees?"

Others claimed the company has not done enough to fix its structural and operational problems in Philadelphia, a delay-prone and space-constrained airport. Don Wright, a US Airways dispatcher and president of the Transport Workers Union Local 545, said he went to Lakefield about two months ago and said "if you don't fix Philadelphia," the airline's future could be at risk.

"We have been asking about this for a long time," he added. "Now to say it is [the fault of] labor is not accurate at all."

"Most employees I know have been embarrassed by the inferior level of service we provide through Philadelphia and look forward to management's input on how to improve it. We wanted this fixed yesterday and we want to work with management to get there."

The International Association of Machinists, representing 9,000 baggage handlers and mechanics, said yesterday it told US Airways last February that Philadelphia was "in urgent need of attention" and offered to help transform the hub into a safe, efficient operation. But the IAM, the one union that has yet to agree to new concessions in US Airways' second bankruptcy, claims management rebuffed the offer, calling it "worthless."

Asked about the Philadelphia concerns, US Airways spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said: "Philadelphia has always been a challenging operation. We have allocated enormous resources, including additional management and staffing, to improve that operation."

"Clearly we have more work to do."

Fred Testa, who ran the Philadelphia International Airport in 1999 and 2000 and now heads the Harrisburg International Airport, admitted that Philadelphia has caused US Airways problems but argued that the company cannot be blamed for that. In fact, Testa claims airport workers have created other headaches for US Airways, perhaps out of frustration at the company's request for more employee concessions. When a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge granted the company's request for a 21 percent, across-the-board pay cut in October, Testa noticed that planes arrived in Harrisburg from Philadelphia with people but no bags. The same thing happened around Thanksgiving, he said.

"It is very well known that the Philadelphia workforce is a tough, tough bunch of cookies," he said. Having run the airport, "I make it a rule not to fly through Philadelphia."

US Airways, concerned about what could happen this weekend in Philadelphia, is asking for employee volunteers to serve as baggage handlers, ramp agents or customer service employees. It has also told union officials representing flight attendants and machinists that "they have a responsibility to make sure their members show up for work and take care of our customers," a company spokesman said.

That goes for operations this weekend at Pittsburgh International, too.

The Findlay-based airport struggled yesterday with more holiday travel issues. Motorists found lines stretching at least the length of a football field as they tried to leave the airport's huge parking complex yesterday morning and early afternoon. One motorist said the line at one point backed up farther, to the airport parking garage.

Grant-Oliver Parking, which runs the parking operation, typically has four booths open to motorists to pay their parking fees before leaving the parking lot. When one employee called in sick, that was reduced to three. And as employees started to take lunch breaks, that left only two pay booths open, causing back-ups, said Dave Paga, manager of Grant-Oliver Parking.

JoAnn Jenny, spokeswoman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, said the problem was exacerbated by the high volume of traffic leaving the airport. Because of delays and cancellations caused by weather, US Airways crew shortages, and computer glitches experienced by Delta subsidiary Comair Christmas weekend, many travelers were just getting here yesterday, she said.

About 600 vehicles left the airport between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. yesterday, and Paga said the lines at most stretched 100 yards. Jenny said motorists who were caught in the traffic tie-up did not have to pay extra for the time they spent waiting. She added Grant-Oliver will have extra staff on duty later this week to handle traffic during the New Year's weekend.

"We expect it to be busy later this week," she said. "We don't expect problems because they will have extra staff."