No Flights, No Work, No Word; REAGAN NATIONAL
Most days, Maria Salientes works the gates and ramps for US Airways Express at Reagan National Airport. Today, she is sitting at home with her three children, out of work and unsure whether she can return to the only U.S. airport closed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.</br></br>Salientes, 29, is but one face of about 10,000 National Airport workers whose lives have been turned upside down by the Bush administration's decision to close indefinitely an airport that is an anchor of the region's economy.</br></br>About 45,000 people a day used National. Until federal officials determine whether to reopen it, workers such as Salientes are in turmoil, trying to figure out their next step.</br></br>US Airways Express, a network of 10 airlines that ferry US Airways passengers between hubs and cities, retains 150 people at National. Of those, 120 -- including Salientes -- are collecting unemployment.</br></br>"I want to get my employees back," said Salientes' boss, Daryush Mazhari, the US Airways Express station manager at National. "These were tragic incidents, and we understand. But you can't safeguard against everything all the time. The planes didn't come from National."