Mar 27, 2008 10:31 am US/Central
American, Delta Cancel Hundreds Of Flights
Cancellations Due To Voluntary Inspections Of MD-88 Airplanes
ATLANTA (CBS News) ―
American Airlines and Delta cancelled hundreds more flights Thursday as they continued inspections of wiring bundles on some of their planes.
Although thousands of passengers were inconvenienced over the past two days, analysts downplayed any notion that the cancellations would hurt the airlines financially. They said the costs would pale in comparison to high fuel prices.
Delta expected to cancel about 275 flights, or about 3 percent of its schedule, before returning to normal operations early Friday, said spokeswoman Chris Kelly.
American, the nation's largest airline, canceled 141 flights by mid-afternoon Thursday, or about 6 percent of its estimated 2,300 flights, officials said. The Fort Worth-based airline canceled 318 flights Wednesday.
At American, inspectors from the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration focused on fixing the spacing between cords used to secure bundles of wires in the auxiliary hydraulic systems of its MD-80 aircraft.
"In no way was safety compromised, but the (FAA) directive said 'Do it this way,"' said American spokesman Tim Smith.
American completed inspections and in some cases alterations on 269 MD-80s by mid-afternoon, and another 21 were still undergoing work that was expected to be done Thursday, Smith said. Nine planes remained to be inspected Thursday night, he said.
Smith said American found seats for most passengers on other planes but also put some customers on other airlines' flights.
CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reports that some of these delays may have been avoidable.
"Travelers are being inconvenienced for no reason whatsoever," aviation expert Darryl Jenkins said.
Jenkins argues the inspections aren't urgent and could have been done overnight over a period of weeks.
"Instead the FAA is seeing fit to inconvenience thousands of travelers all across the United States in order to show Congress that from time to time they can indeed be tough," Jenkins said.
Delta expected heavy volumes Thursday at its hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Kelly said. Both Delta and the Transportation Security Administration were bringing in extra staff to handle the crowd of travelers, she said.
Kelly said she didn't yet have estimates on how many passengers were affected by the flight cancellations.
American and Delta say their operations should be nearly back to normal by tomorrow, but Cordes reports that experts warn other airlines could run into the very same problem.
The inspections came almost three weeks after the FAA ordered a check of all U.S. airlines' maintenance records. That was after controversy erupted over its handling of missed safety inspections at Dallas-based Southwest Airlines.
The FAA hit Southwest this month with a $10.2 million civil penalty for missing the inspections and then continuing to fly the planes with passengers on board even after realizing the mistake. Southwest has said it will appeal the penalty.
The FAA said then that it would check compliance with at least 10 safety orders, called airworthiness directives, at every airline by March 28. The agency said a full audit covering at least 10 percent of all safety directives will be finished by June 30.
Southwest said it reported the missed inspections itself, and that manufacturer Boeing agreed that keeping the planes in operation until they could be re-examined within 10 days didn't pose a safety hazard. Six of the jets required repairs for small cracks. Those repairs have been completed and the planes returned to service, Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McKinnis said Thursday.
The airlines declined to detail how much they were losing on canceled flights and extra inspections and maintenance.
Shares of American parent AMR Corp. fell 23 cents, or almost 3 percent, to $8.38; and shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. lost 39 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $8.35. For AMR, the closing price was a 52-week low, and Delta shares hit a 52-week low of $8.34 during the session.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
