NEW YORK, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Standard & Poor's Monday cut US Airways' credit rating following the company's second bankruptcy filing in 25 months.
S&P lowered the ailing airline's corporate credit rating to D from CCC-minus. The nation's seventh-largest carrier filed for Chapter 11 protection Sunday.
"US Airways enters Chapter 11 with relatively limited cash available, and will have to move quickly to secure cost-saving labor agreements," said S&P credit analyst Philip Baggaley.
S&P said that prospects for the carrier to cut down its debts are "limited, as most debt is in the form of leases of secured aircraft debt, rather than unsecured debt, and some was already renegotiated in the previous Chapter 11 process."
The company originally filed for Chapter 11 in August 2002 and emerged from initial bankruptcy in March 2003. This time around, the company told the district court it hopes to come up with a restructuring plan by the end of the year.
