United Airlines says 60 jobs at San Francisco International Airport have been saved because its local maintenance base came in with the best bid to upgrade the first class and business class cabins in 32 of its Boeing 777 aircraft. The local operation, which employs about 2,700 maintenance workers and engineers, beat out third party contractors that would have taken the work elsewhere, a United spokeswoman said. United now employs about 6,000 maintenance workers systemwide, down from about 16,000 prior to the September 11 attacks that sent the airline industry into a tailspin. The San Francisco operation, which is the airline's headquarters for maintenance, employed about 9,000 people at its pre-9/11 peak -- and is fighting to hang on to every possible job.
