American Airline's future in Tulsa impacts hundreds of other local businesses

Most people know that American Airlines is Tulsa's largest employer. But there are a lot of people who are "not" on the payroll, who rely on American for their bread and butter. <br><br>News on 6

Wednesday, March 12th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Most people know that American Airlines is Tulsa's largest employer. But there are a lot of people who are "not" on the payroll, who rely on American for their bread and butter.

News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg explains the ripple effect. Ever hear of Southern Aeroparts? Or how about a company called Neosource? Probably not, but rest assured, they're important parts of the Tulsa economy.

Tucked away on Tulsa's east side, Neosource is just one more building in a sea of warehouses. In fact, they share their building with another company. You'd probably never guess they share their fate with giants like American Airlines. "The volume of our business has decreased significantly." Kurt Hiserodt's company refurbishes things like latches and door parts. And they're business is off 20% since 9-11.

He says there's no end to the ripple effect. â€œIt isn't isolated to the aerospace industry, it'll leak out into the plating and the other fab shops, some engineering, that type of stuff. We use a little plating shop up in Grove, Oklahoma, but they're an FAA repair station."

Ed Battaglia with Southern Aeroparts says if it weren't for American, his company wouldn't exist. "American Airlines is the backbone to our businesses. If the airlines are sick, then we are sick as an industry. There's almost 300 companies in this area.â€ Bankruptcy is sometimes the best option for a company to survive. But it's probably the worst thing for the company's "suppliers".

For example, Battaglia's company is still waiting to get paid for work it did for the now-bankrupt USAir. "They don't have to pay their bills for a long period of time and we have no recourse on those kinds of situations we just have to grin and bear it. And there's gonna be lots of companies in this area that are going to go out of business because of the health of the industry Iâ€™m confident of it."

The general public would never notice the loss of the 8 workers at Neosource or the 25 workers at Southern Aeroparts, but if you multiply that by hundreds of companies, you're talking about thousands of highly skilled employees.