American Airlines: Something Special in the Air....if you can find a plane that flies.

[marmar]

from AP, via Yahoo!:



American cancels 900 more flights
By DAVID KOENIG, AP Business Writer
22 minutes ago



DALLAS - American Airlines canceled more than 900 flights Thursday to fix faulty wiring in hundreds of jets, marking the third straight day of mass groundings as company executives offered profuse apologies and travel vouchers to calm angry customers.

American, the nation's largest carrier, has now scrubbed more than 2,400 flights since Tuesday, when federal regulators warned that nearly half its planes could violate a safety regulation designed to prevent fires.

That's more than one in three flights canceled over the last three days.

Daniel Garton, an executive vice president of American, said cancellations could extend into Friday.

A return to normal operations depends on how quickly mechanics can inspect and fix the wire bundles. Airline spokesman Tim Wagner said late Wednesday afternoon that 60 planes had been cleared to fly, 119 were being worked on, and 121 planes had not yet been inspected.

The fallout could be seen at airport ticket counters, where frustrated customers bickered with American employees, and on the stock market, where shares of American's parent company tumbled more than 11 percent Wednesday.

American estimates that more than 100 passengers would have been on each of those canceled flights. That means a quarter-million people have been inconvenienced this week.

Airline executives said they thought they had fixed the wiring two weeks ago, when they canceled more than 400 flights to inspect and in some cases fix the shielding around the wires in their MD-80 aircraft.

But this week, Federal Aviation Administration inspectors, who have been conducting stepped-up surveys of airline compliance with safety rules called airworthiness directives, said 15 of 19 American jets they examined flunked. That left the airline no choice but to ground all 300 of its MD-80s, the most common jet in American's 655-plane fleet. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080410/ap_on_bi_ge/american_airlines_cancellations

[Clear Blue Sky]

1. What a mess...

"That means a quarter-million people have been inconvenienced this week." That's an understatement.

[MadAndy]

2. All this to make sure the wire ties on cable bundles are 1" apart? Has the FAA gone NUTS?

[marmar]

3. A number of pilots and formers pilots who are DUers have said it's a pretty serious safety issue....

.... and if BushCo's do-nothing version of the FAA has been moved to act, something tells me it's more serious than they're letting on.

[SpiralHawk]

4. This is republicon government 'regulation' in action

Blame this whole stinking mess on the correct perps:
republicon homelanders intent on trashing government oversight.

[Bonobo]

5. How much did we give them in the post 9/11 bailout anyway?

Billions and billions.

[rsmith6621]

6. The Bail Out Had NADA.....

.....to do with this problem........this is a Airworthy Directive issued by the FAA...All MD-80 carriers have had to ground their aircraft...AA has more and did it sloppy the first time...


Has nothing to do with bailout $$$$$...the bailout money helped consumers more then it did the company.

[Bonobo]

7. Can you explain how tha bailout helped the consumers and had nothing to do with this?

If I was a company that got all that money, I might have used it to improve the services I offered to my customers.

Safe airplanes, better food, better employee training, etc.

They should have used the money to increase their efficiency, improve their product, work towards competing with the rest of the world. The fact is, US airline companies REALLY, REALLY SUCK compared with most other nations.

All the above is just my opinion. I don't have a lot of facts. Maybe you could explain why I am all wrong. I'm listening.

[rsmith6621]

10. people

.......don't want better food....in fact they don't want anything they associate with additional cost....study's have shown this...If you want to show your disgust over this issue you should express it towards the BOEING company the manufacture of the aircraft.

As long as the consumer demands low airfares airlines will have to operate cheaper and they do this by way of lower wages, shorter training for employees.

Also remember that the USA is in the longest period of safe travel ever, many employees have sacrificed to make this happen.

[KharmaTrain]

8. Couldn't Happen To A Nicer Airline

I'm done flying American...this company has become a joke and a pain to fly. Over the past 5 years I've seen a big drop-off in service and performance...maximizing profits and cutting corners.

In the past trips I had one American plane have to deboard passengers and go through an hour-long "additional inspection"...then they had to bring in another plane...we were delayed over two hours. On another trip, we sat for over 3 hours as some "back-up in the system" delayed the plane from arriving. And just recently I had computer glitches in getting boarding passes the resulted in a long run-around in the airport...missing my scheduled flight and having to battle with them about getting on another. Even though they admitted their error, it still cost me $75 to "re-process" the ticket and then went through an embarassing extra security screening at the gate since my travel plans had "abruptly changed". And all of this in trying to get out of the airport. I won't even go into the fun we had on a LA to Chicago flight where both johns blew up...talk about terror at 30,000 feet.

This is just another episode in why bigger isn't better and deregulation has been a major failure. Lack of competition and large debts have hurt efficiency and this latest episode will just scare people away...the few who can still afford the soaring ticket prices. I know I won't be traveling as much as I had and surely American won't be getting any of my business.

Stay tuned...watch for a new government bail-out as the airlines scream that keeping planes safe is just too expensive for them to handle...let the taxpayers deal with it.

[AzDar]

9. Gotta wonder if this is due to the outsourcing of airline component inspection to

third-world countries?
I recall hearing that the U.S. had signed some Orwellian-named treaty to do just that around Sept.-Oct. of 2007.

Simply could NOT believe it....