WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- U.S. airport managers are warning that plans by airlines to drastically reduce service this fall will blow a hole in the nation's "hub-and-spoke" system.

Airlines have said they will institute cuts that could amount to a 10 percent to 20 percent loss in service by the end of the year, coming on top of announced cuts of 30,000 employees. Despite that, the industry could still sustain losses of $7 billion to $13 billion, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Those numbers have alarmed airport managers, who say that 100 cities could lose all commercial air service this year and that as many as 200 could lose service next year.

Among the cities that have already lost air service are Hot Springs, Ark., Athens, Ga., Trenton, N.J., Santa Fe, N.M. and Youngstown, Ohio. The newspaper said that to cope, airport directors are halting expansion projects and putting a freeze on hiring.

As an example, Asheville, N.C., airport director David Edwards told the Post he expects a 10 percent to 15 percent drop in passenger traffic this year, to about 250,000 passengers, and even though Asheville has escaped deep service cuts, high ticket prices prompted by soaring fuel costs are taking a toll.

Pilots: Midwest Airlines seeks bankruptcy

MILWAUKEE, July 12 (UPI) -- Pilots for Midwest Airlines Saturday feared the U.S. airline would soon file for bankruptcy after failing to reach a collective bargaining agreement with them.

Jay Schnedorf, chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association's Midwest Airlines chapter, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he believes Midwest is not bargaining in good faith and is instead is looking for a better deal through a bankruptcy filing.

Schnedorf told the newspaper the pilot's union has offered to concede "several millions of dollars" in wages and benefits and the company's response was to "not move one penny toward us at all. That's not indicative of a company that's trying to avoid the bankruptcy process," he said.

The airline, based in Milwaukee, said in a statement that it is "continuing to talk with the union despite claims to the contrary. Furthermore, we have been open and transparent in providing information, financial and otherwise, and believe strongly that our proposals are fair and equitable."

Rising fuel prices are prompting Midwest Air to seek pay cuts from union pilots ranging from 45 percent to 65 percent, the Journal Sentinel said.

Hyundai workers schedule walkout

SEOUL, July 12 (UPI) -- Workers at South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. will stage a partial strike next week, union officials announced Saturday.

The walkout, the third by Hyundai's unionized workforce this month, is part of an industrial action coordinated by an umbrella labor group, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.

Hyundai workers also staged partial-day walkouts on July 2 and last Thursday.

New York falls in 'yuppie' survey

NEW YORK, July 12 (UPI) -- New York's hurting financial sector is causing it to slip as a destination for "yuppies," Forbes Magazine found in a survey of young professionals.

Turmoil on Wall Street, with thousands of jobs being lost in the wake of the housing crisis, was blamed for New York's drop from first to fourth in the Forbes survey of upward mobility.

"Right now anything would be easier than New York," Richie Rivera, 30, a health insurance administrator from Brooklyn, told The New York Daily News. "A lot of people are losing jobs and trying to find work."

San Francisco leap-frogged over New York into the yuppie top spot thanks to a more diversified economy, followed by Boston with its booming technology sector. Also beating out New York was Houston, where record prices for oil are creating new jobs and more upward mobility in Texas, the Daily News said.

Fifth on the yuppie list was Minneapolis, where employers such as Target Corp. and a burgeoning downtown social scene are attracting young professionals. Forbes found the worst cities for yuppies were Tampa, Fla., Las Vegas and Miami.