Pan Am to Eliminate 2,500 Jobs

Pan American World Airways Inc. said yesterday that it would eliminate 2,500 jobs, or 8.6 percent of its work force, by next month. The layoffs, which include managers and other employees, are the most visible sign yet of the weakening condition of the nation's airline industry.

The cuts, which will save Pan Am about $55 million a year, are part of a cost-saving program aimed at softening the double blow of higher fuel costs and slackening demand for air travel. It is the most employees the troubled airline has let go since 1982.

'A Prudent Move'

''We think this is a prudent move, given the conditions today,'' Thomas G. Plaskett, the chairman of Pan Am, said yesterday, adding that ''we are by no means out of the woods yet.'' He also said the airline would sell its profitable Pan Am Shuttle by the end of the year.

Pan Am's stock rose by 12.5 cents a share yesterday, to $1.875, on the New York Stock Exchange.

Fuel prices have increased by more than 40 percent since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, and the airline industry has felt the impact. But Pan Am, which has lost nearly $2 billion in the last decade, is particularly vulnerable to any cost rises.

Most analysts called the layoffs and other cutbacks announced yesterday a needed, but preliminary, step in making Pan Am profitable.

''It's the last chance to restart the airline,'' said Kevin Murphy of Morgan Stanley & Company. ''It is the first step in a long series of things they need to do to be profitable.''