WASHINGTON, June 24: United Airlines, the second-largest US carrier, said it will lay off 950 pilots amid plans to reduce domestic flights in the face of skyrocketing fuel prices.

UAL Corp, United’s parent company, made the announcement late Monday weeks after saying it was cutting its fleet, operations and up to 1,100 additional jobs to offset soaring fuel bills and a weakening US economy.

The layoffs of 950 pilots will affect about 15 per cent of the pilots employed by United.

“As we reduce the size of our fleet and take actions companywide to enable United to compete in an environment of record fuel prices, we must take the difficult, but necessary step to reduce the number of people we have to run our business,” the Chicago-based airline said.—AFP