American Returns All MD-80s to Service

DALLAS — American Airlines on Saturday received clearance from federal aviation officials to return all of its 300 grounded jets to service, an airline spokesman said.

After 200 cancellations Saturday morning, Fort Worth-based American was running a full schedule by the afternoon with no cancellations, said spokesman Charley Wilson.

Starting Tuesday, the nation's largest airline canceled nearly 3,300 flights, as it grounded 300 MD-80 jets to wrap wiring bundles to meet federal safety standards and prevent fires.

The cancellations stranded hundreds of thousands of people during the week.

American said 226 of its MD-80s were back in service by Friday morning. By noon on Saturday, the airline had received clearance to return all the remaining grounded jets to service, Wilson said.

The groundings had come as a surprise.

American officials said they thought they had the needed repair work completed two weeks ago when it scrubbed more than 400 flights, but the Federal Aviation Administration said the wiring still was not secured and stowed properly in wheel wells.

Gerard Arpey, chairman and chief executive of American parent AMR Corp., said the costs of the cancellations to American will run into the tens of millions of dollars _ including vouchers to reimburse stranded customers, overtime for maintenance crews and lost revenue. An analyst with Standard & Poor's estimated it could easily top $30 million.

Arpey said that neither American's mechanics nor the FAA were to blame for the groundings, and he said he took responsibility for the cancellations. He said the company would hire a consultant to help it comply with FAA safety rules in the future.

American's entire fleet averages 15 years in age, making it the second oldest in the industry behind Northwest Airlines, according to regulatory filings by the airlines.

Arpey said Thursday that American may accelerate the replacement of its MD-80s, but only because newer planes get better mileage, an important consideration with fuel at record prices. The CEO said the recent groundings were not a factor in the decision to replace MD-80s.

Comments

[Marlyn]

Could it be that there is something more serious that caused the grounding and inspection of these planes, both Southwest Airlines and American Airlines? Could it be that they had a heads up from Homeland Security that some planes had been booby trapped?

No one has been dismissed because of this oversight. Could it be that the "wiring problem" isn't really the problem?

[JohnKemp]

American AIrlines is a fine company, the MD-80 is a great plane, and air travel is the safest from of transportation.

The FAA caused all of this aggravation, additional expenses, damage to AA's reputation and financial harm to AA's stockholders.

The FAA stranded the passengers & caused the chaos; AA had nothing to do with it.

A European posting on another site yesteday wrote, "One of the US's biggest problems is that its dumbest people work for its government."

Amen.

The truly sad part here is how the MSM is led around by the nose by the government; it's not possible that this AA "story" could have been reported any less accurately.

[VictoryGin]

I would say they are retrofitting the planes to interface with the new "Taser Braclets"

[VictoryGin]

here is a video of the new braclets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7yJXhxF1mM

[sparkey]

Odd, another comment not posted.

[sparkey]

Maybe I see a conspiracy here that might not be here. Was something else done to those wheel wells besides fixing the wiring? The telecoms are spying on our internet useage. There is nothing to stop American Airlines from doing the same thing to it's passengers to prevent further investigations from the FAA. There is also nothing to prevent something being done to the wiring to bring down a few planes before the elections. The wire bundles are covered and I'm certain that the same workers did not fix all the bundles. A little explosive as small as a firecracker in an enclosed bundle could destroy the wiring and would never be found during an invesigation after the crash. I wouldn't fly American Airlines this year. The fix came too quick.

[pennyfortheguy]

At once plausible and far-fetched.

[pennyfortheguy]

Nagging infrastructure problems. Perhaps 'Air Rawalpindi' will begin jitney service here soon.

[Saganslegacy]

Sloppy work never pays.

[oshpd1]

American Airlines should have done the safety inspections when they were suppose to be done. Why did American Airlines NOT do safety inspecitons until the FAA threatened to fine them?

[forpeace]

*

American Airlines owes an Apology to all those stranded passengers, that's the least it can do, plus full refund to all those poor passengers.

*

[sparkandy]

I spent the last week apologizing to passengers. It's what they pay me a whopping 12 dollars an hour to do. As for the airline apologizing, forget it. What they'll do now is raise ticket prices, cut hours for mechanics, flight attendants, and res agents so the service will deterioriate further, and we employees can forget raises. Of course the fat cats at the top who should have been on top of this in the first place, will still get their million plus bonuses. And American's just the tip of the iceberg. It was our turn last week. Someone else will be on the chopping block in the near future.

[pennyfortheguy]

I apologize to you for being made to be the intermediary by your employer. It is a symptom of our age. I empathize with you.