Company Watch - American Airlines

AirGuide Business, April 14, 2008

Apr 14, 2008

American Airlines customers scheduled to travel on any MD-80 flight from April 8 to 11, even if their flight was not been cancelled, may rebook without a change fee to any American flight with availability in the same cabin as long as their travel begins by April 17. Customers who were inconvenienced with overnight stays should go to www.aa.com where a link has been established to request information about compensation. Customers also were encouraged to continue to check ww.aa.com or to contact their travel agents for flight status information. An AA spokesman said the cancellations would continue into Saturday, but that the airline expected all of the grounded planes to be flying again by Saturday night. For more information, visit www.aa.com Apr 11, 2008

American Airlines canceled 1,094 flights, or nearly half its schedule, on Wednesday to re-inspect aircraft, a disruption that affected about 100,000 passengers and triggered chaos at the busiest U.S. airports. The airline said it expects more than 900 cancellations on Thursday. The disruption at American follows 460 cancellations on Tuesday and hundreds of cancellations two weeks ago. The March disruption was for the same reason as this week's problem -- to ensure compliance with a Federal Aviation Administration safety directive on wiring inspections for MD-80 aircraft. Apr 10, 2008

American Airlines expects to cancel hundreds of flights on Thursday. The airline canceled more than 1,000 flights on Wednesday as it inspected its fleet of MD-80 jetliners. American Executive Vice President of Marketing Dan Garton said the carrier is working to return operations to normal. Meanwhile, some industry experts say aging planes are the underlying cause of maintenance issues. Apr 10, 2008

American Airlines has canceled more than 2,000 flights this week to perform emergency inspections on wiring aboard its MD-80 aircraft. Other airlines that operate the aircraft have followed suit. The problems are not confined to the U.S. British Airways this month was forced to cancel dozens of flights into and out of its new Terminal 5 building at London's Heathrow airport following the failure of what was billed as a state-of-the-art, computerized baggage handling system. Apr 10, 2008

American Airlines parent AMR fell more than 11 percent in regular trade, outpacing losses by stocks of other U.S. airlines. However, AMR gained about a third of that back after-hours to USD$9.51. American said in a statement on Tuesday the FAA raised new concerns about recent wiring inspections and related work on the narrow-body MD-80 aircraft. The airline's 300 aging MD-80s make up nearly half of American's fleet. The inspections stem from an industrywide FAA review of airline compliance with agency safety directives. In addition to American and Delta, several others have grounded aircraft as a result of the audit, which was triggered by inspection and maintenance lapses at Southwest Airlines. Inspections at American relate to a 2006 FAA order to ensure that wiring in the right MD-80 wheel well is properly installed and secured to guard against electrical shorts and possible fire. American first performed the work two weeks ago but an FAA review of that effort found some wire bundles were not secured exactly as the directive specified. The FAA is under enormous pressure from Congress and government watchdogs for not closely overseeing compliance with its safety orders. Apr 10, 2008

Canceled flights for failed safety inspections have reduced air travel to a crawl for many passengers, but it is only the latest bad news in a series of woes for an already battered industry. American Airlines canceled 900 more flights - 40% of its schedule -Thursday because the airline twice failed to meet an air-worthiness directive by the Federal Aviation Administration. That brings the total number of inspection-related cancellations for U.S. carriers to more than 3,100 in the past three weeks - with the potential of cancellations continuing into the summer, leading to multi-million dollar daily losses, according to industry analysts. But grounded passengers are not the only thing hammering airlines recently. Rising fuel costs, long delays and public relations gaffes have also beaten up the industry. Apr 10, 2008

FAA plans to expand scrutiny of aircraft maintenance. Cancellations at American Airlines suggest that the FAA is taking steps to make sure airlines strictly comply with safety regulations. Critics note that the FAA does not allow inspectors to conduct surprise inspections based on their own instincts, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial board says travelers will remain vulnerable to canceled flights until the process is improved. Apr 10, 2008

American Airlines said it was canceling several hundred flights on April 9 to conduct additional inspections of its Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) MD-80 fleet. American said the inspections will ensure precise and complete compliance with the FAA[sup.1]s airworthiness directive, related to the bundling of wires in the aircraft[sup.1]s wheel wells. These inspections based on FAA audits are related to detailed technical compliance issues and not safety-of-flight issues. At press time it was not known how many cancellations will result, but it could be as many as 500 today. Additional cancellations are likely tomorrow, American said. American will re-accommodate customers on other American flights or on flights operated by airlines in the same market. Customers may be automatically notified of flight changes, but should check www.aa.com. Apr 9, 2008