American Airlines cancels more flights as costs add up
Air traveller angst was sure to continue on Friday as American Airlines grounded hundreds more flights.
By Agencies |
ATLANTA: Air traveller angst was sure to continue on Friday as American Airlines grounded hundreds more flights. The financial toll and loss of goodwill likely would grow as well, as the inspection-related mess spread further to other carriers and hurt an industry already bleeding cash thanks to high fuel costs.
Lawmakers were asking questions and some fed-up air travellers headed for trains. Others gave the airlines a pass, saying the companies were doing the best they could.
"If somebody's got a choice between being in a plane crash and being late, is there a choice?" Jane Bernard, a writer from New York who was delayed by at least three hours en route from LaGuardia Airport to Miami, said on Thursday.
Congress also weighed in yesterday. The Federal Aviation Administration official who ordered safety audits last month, Nicholas Sabatni, faced tough questions from a Senate sub-committee about the agency's lax oversight of airlines and his own accountability for recent breakdowns.
The FAA noted that airlines had 18 months to check electrical wiring on MD-80 jets since an initial order was issued in September 2006.
American, a unit of Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp, canceled another 595 flights today, bringing this week's total to nearly 3,100 due to safety inspections of its MD-80. The carrier said disruptions will continue through tomorrow as it works to comply with the federal safety order.
Alaska Airlines, Midwest Airlines and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. joined the wave, each cancelling a small number of flights on MD-8 aircraft on Thursday.
Lawmakers were asking questions and some fed-up air travellers headed for trains. Others gave the airlines a pass, saying the companies were doing the best they could.
"If somebody's got a choice between being in a plane crash and being late, is there a choice?" Jane Bernard, a writer from New York who was delayed by at least three hours en route from LaGuardia Airport to Miami, said on Thursday.
Congress also weighed in yesterday. The Federal Aviation Administration official who ordered safety audits last month, Nicholas Sabatni, faced tough questions from a Senate sub-committee about the agency's lax oversight of airlines and his own accountability for recent breakdowns.
The FAA noted that airlines had 18 months to check electrical wiring on MD-80 jets since an initial order was issued in September 2006.
American, a unit of Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp, canceled another 595 flights today, bringing this week's total to nearly 3,100 due to safety inspections of its MD-80. The carrier said disruptions will continue through tomorrow as it works to comply with the federal safety order.
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Alaska Airlines, Midwest Airlines and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. joined the wave, each cancelling a small number of flights on MD-8 aircraft on Thursday.
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