Kansas City, Mo. ? American Airlines has announced details on its plan for continued use of the Kansas City overhaul base, saying it will move maintenance work on its fleet of MD-80 planes there starting early next year.

Thursday’s announcement will assure the base a steady flow of work for the next two years, but there was some concern that Kansas City won’t have a bigger role in working on the airline’s newer fleet of Boeing 737s.

The announcement follows the understanding reached last month with the city that the airline will continue operating the overhaul base at Kansas City International Airport.

“The only disappointment is that the 737s are considered the future fleet of this airline,” said Gordon Clark, president of Transport Workers Union Local 530. “As for the MD-80s, they’re going to start phasing them out over the new few years. But we’re still comfortable that this will give us job security at least through 2005.”