We’re American Airlines
…Doing what we do best
(CNN) — American Airlines canceled more than 900 flights Thursday as it continues to perform safety inspections on certain jets.
American Airlines entered its third day of cancellations on Thursday.
It’s the third consecutive day of cancellations for American Airlines, which has apologized to customers and offered to make amends with refunds, vouchers, and compensation for overnight stays.
American also canceled several hundred flights for the same reason about two weeks ago.
Roger Frizzell, an airline spokesman, said the inspections involve technical compliance as opposed to flight safety.
I’ve never been a big fan of the DC-9 family, and when a spokesman says something weaselly like that my spider senses start to tingle even more.
It seems this “technical compliance” issue has to do with FAA directives on how electrical wires that direct the aircraft control systems are bundled as they go through the front wheel well into the cockpit. Evidently if this is done incorrectly the motion of the nose landing gear can cause damage to the wires which could effectively turn the plane into a very large aluminum brick.
The effect of this on ‘flight safety’ seems unclear according to Mr. Frizzell.
Biz | Mr. Bingley | 
April 10, 2008 7:31 am
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I blame the chiefs in charge for tring to save a buck. This is the biz they are in. the CEO knows what it takes to maintain these aircrafts. The higher ups failed in properly doing their jobs. To worried about the bottom line, well now it bites the company in the rear. Holding the ball is the stockholders & customers. All you can do is say “sorry” It’s time for a change ceo & his right man need to step down, I blame them for not allowing the employees to properly do their jobs. Shame on you Apry
Airline cancellations profitable? If fuel costs are $16,000.00 for an MD-80 aircraft carrying 150 passengers charged $130.00 (total $19,500.00)and other direct costs are $5000.00 per flight, it would be profitable to cancel the flight. Cancelling 1000 flights in one day would represent a profit of two million dollars if the number of passengers per flight dropped below 130 per flight.
I will never fly with American again after this situation. I tried for over 3 hours to get through to someone in customer service last night for help in re-routing a flight they cancelled on me. Once I got through, I was disconnected with no call back etc. Any further attempts to get through (at 2am) were made in vain…as I would get in que and then be disconnected by hearing someone dial a number and then a busy signal.
This was a poor business decision on American’s part, but has to do with their aging fleet. I will never fly them again!!
What a mess, Jennifer! I hope at least you were at home and not stuck at the airport like so many of those poor folks have been.
Should be interesting to see if Mr. Arprey keeps his job after this. They axed David Neeleman for much less at JetBlue last year.
American is seriously squeezed now. In better times, they would have dumped these airplanes long ago because they are 30 years old and have become maintenance hogs.
Now they need to figure out how to finance new airplanes at a time when they’re strapped for cash.
You would think they would take a few planes out – and work with other airlines ahead of time. BUT truth is they dont care. let the passengers rot
if they cared, they would have
1) attended to their planes long before this
2) planned ahead to lessen the blow
3) respect their passengers
hopefully american airlines will not suffer for their uncaring – and .. be gone. truth is, i dont fky american airlines and now will not.
corp greed and corp uncaring time for the consumer to rise up. american – out of business.. who is next!
I am curious in the prior comment reZ; profitability for cancelled flight.
the passengers would receive a refund or the airline will have to pay another airlne for the passengers… not to mention hotel and possible lawsuits.
where is it profitable for an airline to keep their planes grounded?
add in bad PR .. and future lost business (opportunity loss).
what i believe – is that if someone at these airlines did their job and didnt try to save anicle by not inspecting a plane.. they would not lose thar nickle now.. and so much more. NO i disagree… with fuel costs high – it is not profitable to keep the planes grounded…
PS: I used to work for the biggest oil co. and worked on aviation fuel contracts – the airlines still pay… they pay for their fuel in advance. the oil companies arent stupid.. if you dont use the fuel it isnt their problem.
I said in the 1970’s that de-regulation of the airlines was a huge mistake. Now the chickens come home to roost. And the do-nothing Republican administration, so afraid of big business, has only compounded the problems by refusing to regulate airlines and most other businesses (FAA should have been on top of this). The consequences of American’s debacle could tip the cow into a depression.
I’m not sure I agree, CJ. De-regulation of the airlines led to far cheaper travel in the US, and despite the fears of the naysayers at the time it is also safer now than it was in the 70s by any measure you care to use, which is quite remarkable given the much greater number of flights now as opposed to back then.
It seems to me that in fact the very cause of this current debacle was the FAA starting to enforce regulations, hence all the scrambling by these carriers to ‘catch up.’ The government spends far too much time, and far too much of our money, regulating businesses as it is, which is why so many of them have found that it is cheaper to move operations over seas to less-regulated environments and ship the crap back here for us to consume.