American Airlines CEO Taking Blame For Cancellations

American Airlines chairman and chief executive officer Gerard Arpey said Thursday that he is taking "personal responsibility" for the botched maintenance that has forced the carrier to cancel some 3,000 flights this week for aircraft inspections.

"I run the company," Mr. Arpey told reporters at an afternoon news conference, "so if there's any blame to be had, it is my fault, and I take full responsibility for this."
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American canceled more than 930 flights Thursday as its mechanics, quality assurance inspectors and engineers worked to ensure that the carrier's fleet of 300 MD-80 jets would meet Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

American Airlines canceled 595 flights Friday, but said it expected to be operating 60 percent of its MD-80 flights by 4 p.m. The carrier has canceled at least 185 flights for Friday at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

American, which has canceled more than 3,000 flights since Tuesday, said it had 226 of its 300 MD-80 aircraft back in service Friday morning, with inspections and repairs completed.

The Fort Worth-based expects the disruptions to continue into the weekend, although an airline spokesman said Saturday's cancellations should be fewer than Friday's.

Passengers of American Airlines will face more travel troubles Thursday as the carrier is set to cancel hundreds of flights while it continues to fix wiring on some of its jets.

The 900 flights expected to be grounded Thursday are on top of the almost 1,100 cancelled Wednesday, and more than 700 earlier in the week.

The airline estimated Wednesday that more than 100,000 travellers were affected by the cancellations — with airports in Dallas and Chicago hardest hit.

Some Canadian airports will be affected as well, as Thursday flights between Calgary and Dallas have been cancelled.

The airline says it has been providing vouchers for later flights, as well as meals, hotels and ground transportation for stranded passengers, though some travellers including, Mary Rickert, complained of chaos.

"It's an absolute disaster," Rickert said of the lines at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. "It's a four-hour wait just to get to the ticket counter. Shoot me now."

The cancellations stem from inspections of U.S. planes being carried out by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA's second round of checks are expected to continue through June. The inspections were sparked by a congressional hearing last week that found Southwest Airlines had kept 40 planes in the air that hadn't been properly inspected.

The FAA is investigating American Airlines' aging MD-80 jets, which make up almost half its fleet. Federal inspectors say they have found problems with the spacing and direction of cords used to secure bundles of wires in the planes' auxiliary hydraulic systems.

If the wiring rubs together, the fear is it could ignite fuel vapours and cause an ex

American Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights, or nearly 45 percent of its daily schedule, on Wednesday, stranding thousands of passengers and creating chaos at the busiest U.S. airports as it conducted safety inspections of its MD-80 aircraft.

The cancellations by the No. 1 U.S. airline, a unit of AMR Corp, follow 460 cancellations on Tuesday and hundreds of cancellations two weeks ago, also for inspections.

An airline spokesman said about 30 MD-80s were in service on Wednesday morning and more were expected to resume flying later in the day.

"We continue to inspect every airplane to ensure we are in total agreement with the specifications of the directive," AMR Chief Executive Gerard Arpey said in a statement. "We will get back to a full schedule as quickly as possible."

Shares of AMR fell more than 10 percent early Wednesday afternoon, outpacing losses by other U.S. airline stocks. The Amex airline index was down 4.8 percent.