American Scrubs 200 Flights; Full Schedule Tomorrow (Update2)
By Mary Schlangenstein
April 12 (Bloomberg) -- AMR Corp.'s American Airlines canceled another 200 flights today and predicted a return to a full schedule tonight as it worked to complete wiring inspections and repairs on its Boeing Co. jets.
Meeting that goal of normal operations would bring an end to five days of flight disruptions that erased almost 3,300 flights by the world's largest carrier and stranded about 360,000 passengers.
``Most of the cities only had a small handful of cancellations this morning,'' said American spokesman Tim Smith in a taped statement. The exceptions were at airports serving Dallas and Fort Worth, with 57 departure cancellations, and Chicago, with 29.
By midmorning, only three of the carrier's 300 MD-80s were awaiting final inspections by the Federal Aviation Administration; the remaining planes were back in service, Smith said.
Chief Executive Officer Gerard Arpey said winning travelers' confidence again ``will not be easy'' after the cancellations linked to the MD-80s, which account for 46 percent of American's fleet.
``There is no sugarcoating the fact that we are going to have to earn back the trust of the customers we disappointed in recent days,'' Arpey said in a message to employees. He added: ``I know we can do it.''
Earning Trust
AMR fell 39 cents, or 4 percent, to $9.48 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange trading. The shares have plunged 71 percent in the past year and 32 percent since the end of December.
American parked the planes after Federal Aviation Administration spot checks found that wiring bundles in the jets' wheel wells didn't comply with an FAA order, even after inspections of the MD-80 fleet for the same issue in March.
The original FAA order specifying how the wiring bundles had to be covered and secured noted the danger of shorting or arcing, possibly resulting in a fire. A blaze might spark an explosion in fuel tanks in the wings, the FAA said.
American's MD-80s have two engines, can seat 140 passengers and are used mostly on domestic routes. Each canceled flight would have had about 110 people on board, American spokesman Tim Wagner estimated this week.
American hired an outside consultant to review its compliance with FAA directives and is conducting an internal investigation. No changes in maintenance personnel are planned ``at this point,'' said Roger Frizzell, American's vice president of corporate communications.
Vouchers, Refunds
Customers booked on canceled flights may request a refund, and those stranded overnight can seek a $500 voucher toward future flights, American said. Those with flight reservations through tomorrow can rebook without charge. The airline is paying for hotel stays for passengers stuck overnight.
``This would be a big item normally, but in the age when oil is jumping $10 a barrel in one week and you have an uncertain economy, this is really on the back burner as far as serious cost items go,'' Ray Neidl, a New York-based analyst at Calyon Securities Inc., said in an interview.
``Whatever it might cost them during this ordeal could be completely reversed very easily if oil went down $10 a barrel,'' he added.
President George W. Bush is aware that travelers are under a ``great strain'' from this week's cancellations, and ``those are certainly concerns that we share,'' White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters yesterday in Crawford, Texas. ``But we also share safety concerns.''
To contact the reporters on this story: Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at maryc.s@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 12, 2008 14:05 EDT
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