American Airlines canceled 1,094 flights, or nearly half its schedule, on Wednesday to re-inspect aircraft, a disruption that affected about 100,000 passengers and triggered chaos at the busiest US airports. The airline said it expects more than 900 cancellations on Thursday.
 The disruption at American follows 460 cancellations on Tuesday and hundreds of cancellations two weeks ago. The March disruption was for the same reason as this week'sproblem, to ensure compliance with a Federal Aviation Administration safetydirective on wiring inspections for MD-80 aircraft. "We have obviously failed to comply with the airworthiness directive to the precise standards that the FAA requires," AMR Chief Executive Gerard Arpey said at a news conference in Los Angeles. "I take full personalresponsibility."
Delta Air Lines canceled about two dozen flights on Wednesday and Alaska
Airlines, 14, to address the same situation on their MD-80s. Delta canceled
hundreds of flights at the same time as American in late March. Dan
Garton, American's marketing chief, told reporters the carrier hoped to have
full operations by Saturday. "We're working hard to get the airline back
to normal," Garton said. Airline officials could not estimate the
hit financially but Arpey said the episode would be "costly." A
spokesman estimated about 100,000 passengers were affected by the 1,094
cancellations. Shares of AMR fell more than 11 percent in regular trade,
outpacing losses by stocks of other US airlines. However, AMR gained about a
third of that back after-hours to $9.51.
American said in a statement on Tuesday the FAA raised new concerns about
recent wiring inspections and related work on the narrow-body MD-80 aircraft.
The airline's 300 aging MD-80s make up nearly half of American's fleet.
The inspections stem from an industry wide FAA review of airline compliance
with agency safety directives. In addition to American and Delta, several
others have grounded aircraft as a result of the audit, which was triggered by
inspection and maintenance lapses at Southwest Airlines.
Inspections at American relate to a 2006 FAA order to ensure that wiring in
the right MD-80 wheel well is properly installed and secured to guard against
electrical shorts and possible fire. American first performed the work
two weeks ago but an FAA review of that effort found some wire bundles were
not secured exactly as the directive specified. The FAA is under
enormous pressure from Congress and government watchdogs for not closely
overseeing compliance with its safety orders. American said late on
Wednesday that it had so far inspected 179 MD-80 planes, of which 119 still
needed more work. The company said 60 were returned to service, and 121
remained to be inspected. Each MD-80 must be cleared by an FAA inspector
before returning to service. American said it would hire an outside
company to review compliance with FAA requirements.
Delta voluntarily re-inspected about half of its 117 MD-80s on Tuesday
night and canceled about two dozen flights on Wednesday. About 20 planes
required extra work. The airline was to recheck the other half of that fleet
on Wednesday night. It rebooked passengers on other Delta flights and expects
no additional customer impact, a spokeswoman said. Delta said it was
working directly with the FAA on the new inspections. Alaska Airlines
also inspected its MD-80s, resulting in 14 cancellations on Wednesday.
American's cancellations angered travelers at several airports where agents
struggled to book passengers on other flights. Dallas was hardest hit with 208
cancellations, followed by Chicago O'Hare with 138. American offered
vouchers to travelers willing to take a later flight. Garton said American
also provided meals, hotels and ground transportation.
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