American Airlines Cancels More Flights
CBN News
April 10, 2008
CBNNews.com - This has been a rough week for American Airlines and its passengers.
The airline cancelled 900 more flights today to do safety inspections. It's the third day of disruptions, leaving customers on a wing and a prayer to get home.
Thousands of passengers are having the same problem.
"Our luggage is captive and we can't even change our clothes!" one disgruntled traveler said.
And from Los Angeles to Chicago, the complaints sound similar.
"We've been here over an hour and no one has told us anything," one traveler complained.
Another dissatisfied customer said, "They knew these flights would be cancelled, but they don't have anybody to help us out."
The government ordered the country's biggest carrier, American Airlines, to re-inspect all of their MD-80 planes.
Technicians have been checking over bundles of wiring on hundreds of planes, forcing the planes to be grounded and stranding thousands of passengers.
But many are wondering why all these planes are grounded at all. The maintenance problems were reportedly fixed two weeks ago.
"To have to go and check things, I think we can all understand that and I think we appreciate that. But come on folks, get it right the first time," aviation analyst Terry Trippler said.
There were long lines, testy passengers, and lit up flight boards in airports all over the country.
Looking for information on your flight? Customers were told to call the airline.
But with thousands of calls flooding the system, a staid recording is about all the information a customer can expect to get: "All of our representatives are busy at this time If you need to speak to someone please try your call later."
American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey says the airline is doing everything possible to get their planes back in the air.
"I want to publicly apologize for the inconvenience that we have caused our customers because of the continued inspections of our MD-80s," Arpey said, "We simply cannot put our customers through this again."
Source: ABC, The Associated Press
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