The turbulence continues for US Airways and its employees.

After already agreeing to two rounds of contract concessions, US Airways' flight attendants union this week has agreed to a new round of contract talks to help the airline further reduce operating costs. The labor cuts, estimated by management at $800 million a year by company management, are necessary to help the airline survive competition from younger, low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines, Jet Blue and others.

A recent article in BusinessWeek magazine examined the plight of US Airways and other so-called "legacy" airlines including United, American, Delta and Northwest. While the financials struggles of US Airways and United are getting the most media attention, all the older airlines are threatened by the newer carriers, which generally have lower operating costs and no retirees receiving health or pension benefits.

BusinessWeek pointed out that the legacy carriers are losing billions of dollars a year and seeing their market share shrink as the low-cost airlines have grown to control nearly 30 percent of the domestic market while managing to make a profit.

The pain being felt by US Airways' flight attendants, as they prepare to help reduce the company's costs by over $100 million a year by rolling back wages, schedule rules and fringe benefits, is also being felt by US Airways' pilots, as they have agreed to consider providing nearly $300 million in cost savings.

These two unions have seen that as painful as the give backs are, they are the essential to the company's survival.

The BusinessWeek story, titled "Big Airlines: Not Much Runway Left," noted that pension costs, health benefits, inefficient work rules and seniority-based pay scales are all squeezing the old-line airlines. The new, low-cost airline companies are generally so young that they have no retirees to worry about yet, and when they do have retirees to help support, the promised benefits are much more modest than the deals now strangling legacy carriers.

US Airways and United are the lead players in a national drama playing out in the airline industry. Their plight is not unlike the steel industry, where old-line companies struggle and sometime fail under the crushing burden of expensive benefits for hundreds of thousand of retirees.

In Western Pennsylvania, the US Airways story attracts more attention that United's plight because of the company's 8,000 workers living in the Pittsburgh area. Beyond the employment picture, US Airways' dominate position at the Pittsburgh International Airport raises questions in the minds of many travelers when considering what might happen at the airport if US Airways fails or is liquidated.

The flight attendants and pilots deserve credit for understanding, as painful as it might be, that they and other employees hold the keys to the company's survival. These men and women face difficult times and financial pain whether the airline fails or survives as a competitive airline.

They are facing reality and working with company management to preserve their jobs and keep the company alive. It is surely a difficult thing to do, but it is the only logical thing to do.