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United Airlines, one of the largest carriers at Los Angeles International Airport, said today it plans to eliminate its low-fare Ted service as it grounds additional 70 more planes and pares up to 1,100 more jobs in response to high fuel costs.

But the nation's second-largest airline did not disclose when and which routes would be cut.

In a message to employees, United officials said only that the cuts would be achieved over time by "principally" culling flight schedules with "modest reductions in routes and destinations." Flight schedule changes associated with the additional fleet cuts will be "completed in the near future," the airline said.

LAX officials said it had not yet received any information on which routes from LAX and Ontario International Airport would be affected. United, a subsidiary of UAL Corp., accounts for about 15% of all passenger traffic at LAX. Last year, it flew more than 9 million passengers at LAX for domestic and international travel.

Chicago-based United also did not disclose when it would begin shutting down its Ted service, which was formed while the airline was in bankruptcy shortly after the September 2001 terrorist attacks grounded air travel. The service with its own fleet of 56 all-economy A-320 aircraft was started to compete against discount airlines such as Southwest and JetBlue.

Ted has nine daily departures at LAX, six of them to Las Vegas. It also has five daily departures at Ontario, with the only Denver service from the airport.

United officials said the "aggressive" moves were necessary to weather what it called an "unprecedented fuel environment."

In all, the airline plans to pare about 18% of its flights by the end of next year as it grounds a total of 100 older, gas-guzzling aircraft including 94 single-aisle Boeing 737s and six Boeing 747 jumbo jets. It currently has a fleet of 460 planes.

With previously announced cuts, the airline said it expects to pare a total of 1,600 jobs, or about 3% of its workforce.

peter.pae@latimes.com

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