PHILADELPHIA -- Three US Airways employees at Philadelphia International Airport have been fired, and a number of others disciplined, for selling their employer-issued "buddy" passes for a profit on flights between Philadelphia and Tel Aviv, Israel.
The FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia are investigating, said US Airways spokesman Todd Lehmacher.
The three employees fired were a US Airways manager, a fleet service agent, and a customer service agent, Lehmacher said.
"Several employees were involved in a fraudulent ticket scheme that involved using employee travel benefits to and from Tel Aviv," he said. "It happened about four to six weeks ago."
"It involved employee travel benefits that they were selling to people," said Lehmacher. "I don't know if it was their own benefits, or someone was going into our system, and manipulating the system, and adding more buddy passes."
"There is at least one, or more, outside individuals involved, so we have turned it over to law enforcement for investigation."
Lehmacher said, "We know that there were outside people involved. We don't know how many, or who they were. To the best of our knowledge, no travel agency was involved."
A US Airways employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized, said the manager had information and passwords to a group of employees and could access their airline-issued discount flight passes.
Seats were blocked out on the Tel Aviv-Philadelphia route, and released just hours before a flight, so that passengers with the "buddy" passes could fly, the worker said.
The ring allegedly made a profit on each pass. The actual cost to a US Airways employee or a guest using the pass to Tel Aviv is about $477.45 round-trip, Lehmacher confirmed. The tickets typically range in price from about $1,000 to as much as $3,000 for some "Envoy" class seats.
Lehmacher declined to release names of the terminated employees, or to specify how many others were disciplined.
US Airways corporate security department in Phoenix and Philadelphia are involved.
The scheme was uncovered when a flight was canceled and passengers were rolled over to another flight, and the number of blocked-out seats released at the last minute became suspicious, a worker said.
US Airways employees receive eight round-trip "guest" passes a year for reduced fares that can be given to friends and family, but not sold for a profit. The tickets require passengers to fly standby, or when seats are available.
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