By law a pension fund can't be underfunded. The problem is the actuarial
assumptions haven't been coming true especially the estimates on
investments of the pension fund.

The airlines are just the tip of the iceberg. There many local and state
government pension funds are also underfunded. You might be able to sell
some airplanes to fund the pensions, but who wants to buy a school?

"Carl Ellis" wrote in message
...

Sounds like you are talking about the unions. The unions struck in
order to get this pension that UAL couldn't afford. However, you
don't
know if it was underfunded BEFORE or AFTER the discount carriers ate
their lunch.


It's a pretty safe bet that it was underfunded well before. There not
many
companies that fully fund the pensions - simply because they don't
have to.

An intersting note is that company executives usually don't get
personally
bit by the pension disasters. Their plans are often seperately and
fully
funded.