American Airlines Cancels 1,000 Flights...

[LaoPo]

American Airlines cancels 1,000 flights for inspections

Wed Apr 9, 2008 5:03pm EDT

By Kyle Peterson

CHICAGO (Reuters) - American Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights, or nearly 45 percent of its daily schedule, on Wednesday, affecting many thousands of passengers and creating chaos at the busiest U.S. airports as it conducted safety inspections of its MD-80 aircraft.

The cancellations by the No. 1 U.S. airline, a unit of AMR Corp, follow 460 cancellations on Tuesday and hundreds of cancellations two weeks ago, also for inspections.

An AMR spokesman said he estimated around 100,000 passengers were affected.

"We have obviously failed to comply with the airworthiness directive to the standards that the FAA requires," AMR Chief Executive Gerard Arpey said at a press conference in Los Angeles. "I take full responsibility."

Arpey said about 70 MD-80s were in service on Wednesday afternoon.

Shares of AMR fell more than 11 percent on Wednesday afternoon, outpacing losses by stocks of other U.S. airlines. The Amex airline index was down 4.9 percent on high fuel prices and expectations for a weaker economy.

American said in a statement on Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) raised new concerns about recent wiring inspections of the narrowbody MD-80 aircraft that resulted in canceled flights two weeks ago. The airline's 300 aging MD-80s make up nearly half of AMR's fleet. The average age of the AMR MD-80s is 18 years.

The inspections are part of an industrywide FAA review of airline compliance with agency safety directives. Several carriers have grounded aircraft as a result of the audit, which was triggered by inspection and maintenance lapses at Southwest Airlines Co.

The American Airlines inspections relate to a 2006 FAA order to ensure that wiring in MD-80 wheel wells is properly installed and secured.

The carrier said in a statement that it would hire an outside company to review American's compliance with FAA requirements.

Alaska Air Group, the parent of Alaska Airlines, also inspected its MD-80s to ensure its wheel well wiring is in compliance with FAA guidelines. The airline said it canceled three flights on Tuesday and 14 so far on Wednesday.

STRANDED

The cancellations angered travelers at several airports where agents struggled to book passengers on other flights.

Dallas, which saw 208 cancellations, was the city hardest hit, followed by Chicago, with 138 cancellations.

At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, American offered vouchers to travelers willing to take a later flight. Meanwhile, an airline employee offered orange juice and snacks to mollify angry passengers.

"American will do whatever it takes to assist those affected by these flight changes," Arpey said. "This includes compensating those inconvenienced customers who stayed overnight in a location away from their final destination."

Terry Trippler, travel expert at TripplerTravel.com, said the inspections did not raise safety concerns for him. Rather, the disruption itself is a bigger worry. The airline should have performed the inspections right the first time, he said.

"Somebody at American should be on the unemployment line," Trippler said. "Do you know how many people they're disrupting? This is unbelievable."

He said the financial cost to the airline would be high but the carrier also would have a lot of work to do to improve its relations with infuriated passengers.

AMR shares fell 10.8 percent to $9.21 on the New York Stock Exchange. Airline shares were broadly weaker after the price of crude oil -- directly linked to the price of jet fuel -- notched a record high above $112 a barrel.

Shares of US Airways Group were down 9.3 percent at $8.95 on the NYSE. Delta Air Lines shares fell 6.2 percent to $8.76 on NYSE.

http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNew...dai&sp=true

LaoPo

[stoneman]

I guess the part that I do not understand is that this order was issued in 2006 and AA just corrected the problem last month, which was the deadline for having the correction completed...Why didn't they start doing this 2 years ago? How old are these MD-80s...30 years?

And as long as I am ranting about airlines, this BS about them losing money because of the fuel cost is just that..BS...Every airline has added a fuel surcharge to every ticket and I can almost guarantee you that the fuel surcharge added to the ticket, at least, and probably more than covers the fuel cost...

Stoneman

[tolsti]

Quite a frightening report here linked to the fault that has caused the groundings

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/08/griffin.l...gear/index.html

[LaoPo]

Amer Airlines Cancels About 570 Flights Friday

By Jennifer Hodson

Last update: 6:42 p.m. EDT April 10, 2008

American Airlines said it canceled about 570 flights on Friday as the company works to complete inspections of its MD-80 fleet. As of Thursday afternoon, 132 MD-80 aircraft were returned to service. The Fort Worth, Texas, airline said inspection would continue overnight with about 170 MD-80s expected to be available for service Friday morning. Shares of AMR fell 11 cents, or 1.1%, to $9.76 in after-hours trading.

MarketWatch/Dow Jones

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