American Airlines renewed its apologies Thursday to more than 200,000 passengers whose travel plans were disrupted this week. Almost 600 more flights were expected to be canceled today, and the airline said it would be at least Sunday before things were back to normal.
As the airline struggled to get its planes flying again, new details emerged on the events that led to the massive flight cancellations and the Federal Aviation Administration's newly aggressive role in policing the nation's airlines.
While nervous airline executives refused to publicly criticize the FAA, they privately grumbled that the agency had been taking a harder line with airlines on complying with airworthiness directives. They said the extraordinary number of flight cancellations might not have been necessary if the FAA hadn't gotten "unreasonably" tougher in recent weeks.
"I'm not sure I would characterize it that way," a more cautious Gerard Arpey, chief executive of American Airlines, said. He stopped short of criticizing the agency for its role in one of the nation's worst air travel debacles but added, "It would be fair to say that the FAA is stepping up surveillance."
He estimated it would cost American "tens of millions of dollars" in expenses for customer service as well as for inspecting and repairing the aircraft.
The final cost could easily exceed $30 million, said Philip Baggaley, an industry analyst at Standard & Poor's Corp.
On Thursday, American canceled about 930 flights as some of its fleet of 300 MD-80 jetliners remained grounded for a third day so wiring bundles could be inspected to ensure compliance with FAA maintenance directives. American normally operates about 2,300 flights a day.
Including the 570 cancellations expected today, American has scrubbed about 3,000 flights since Tuesday, creating chaotic conditions at some of the nation's busiest airports and raising the ire of passengers.
American canceled 15 of its 92 scheduled departures at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday. Fewer than 10 flights are expected to be scrapped at LAX today. American also canceled a small number of flights today at Burbank, Ontario and San Diego airports.
Many passengers were more knowledgeable about what was happening at the airports yet no less irate.
Andrew Cerber flew into LAX from Australia with his wife, Kathy, only to find that their connecting flight to Las Vegas had been canceled.
