Todd Michaels

DALLAS/FORT WORTH (MSNBC) -- American Airlines has announced that over 1000 flights have been cancelled. The company has taken all of its MD-80 aircraft out of service to repair a wiring problem. A press conference is expected in about one hour.

American operates about 300 MD-82 and MD-83 planes, nicknamed "Super 80s." The planes were manufactured and delivered during the mid-1980s.

This is the second time in the past month the airline has grounded the MD-80 fleet.

MarinerOne

What a horrible ... horrible situation this must be for travelers.

I was flying back from Sioux Falls (FSD) through Denver yesterday on United, and my flight from FSD to DEN was cancelled, but fortunately they flew a replacement plane (Canadair Regional Jet) up from Springfield, MO to fill in. We left about an hour late, but I had to scramble from the UA concourse (B) at DEN to the Frontier concourse (A) in less than 20 minutes to catch the Frontier flight back to SAN. I was hustlin' and bustlin' through three walkways on Concourse A and made it to the tram which got me over to the Frontier gate with about five minutes to spare to make the connection - otherwise I would have had to spend the night at DEN, which I would not have relished. Nothing against Denver per sé, just the inconvenience of the situation.

My situation resolved itself quite well and I got home later than anticipated, but at least I got there.

As for all the AA cancellations, I can ONLY imagine how frustrated these travelers must be, especially the many BUSINESS people who have very tight schedules with important meetings and so forth.

Air travel is getting uglier by the week.

On top of cancellations and delays, you have the additional possibility of airline shutdowns due to the price of fuel - I don't know how much more the industry can sustain if oil prices continue to elevate.
A scary scenario for passengers and crew ...

Landing gear mishap nearly catastrophic, pilot says - CNN.com

...

Horizon CRJ700

The MD-80s are old and need to be replaced. American has relied on these aircraft too long and forces them to run routes they are not designed to do. A full replacement of 737-8s would be nice. like that will ever happen

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"the first thing any country, no matter how poor it is or how war-torn, must do upon independence is buy a 747 and fly it to Heathrow".

ozark delta brat

Gerald Arpey and his minions are, right now, at 23:30 local time,
formulating their gameplan to double their bonuses while filing
bankruptcy all as a result of MD80gate. Just you watch.

AMR leftseat guys I know have confirmed what I know from
experience, living in Dallas, and being subjected to the bacteria
farms in the sky which need a C-check in a bad way: Arpey
and the culture they have created not only put national insecurity
at risk, they poison their paying customers daily, with over 100
birds in the air which are technically airworthy, but in desperate need
of a tear-down and hot boiling sanitization given that each of these
100 birds (all makes) have had tarmac-stranding toilet-overflow events
which have soaked the gizzards of each bird and created an eye-burning
lung-scorching travel experience for tens of thousands of paying
customers each day. But you can't do C-checks: it's bad for
executive bonuses.

I gave all of my transatlantic business (6 crossings) to BA last year,
because AMR is on the verge of a major meltdown - I only fly them
domestically because i have to from a risk mitigation standpoint, living
in Dallas.

-odb

ozark delta brat

And btw, at least 30 or 40 of the md80's are chinese-manufactured
and arrived in the TWA borg. There is a story there for those who
wish to seek it....

-odb

CcrlR737pilot

They deferred their 737 deliveries. They should be kicking them in gear pretty soon in another couple of months and mabye a year too. ORD got the big kick in the crotch since majority of our domestic routes are flown by the MD-80's We used to have 737's fly out of here but to limited destinations. That would have helped a little bit but they still need to get their deliveries going.

The worse part about the MD-80's are that they are doing short and long hops like ORD-MSP and ORD-DFW, ORD-LAX, where they usually have a mix doing those for LAX, SFO, DFW, MIA, and others.

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I flushed a potato down the toilet and now we have to live in a hotel!

CcrlR737pilot

Can I have the story too? It would make an interesting conversation with some of my aviation professors.

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I flushed a potato down the toilet and now we have to live in a hotel!

MarinerOne

No wonder hasn't changed their color scheme in over thirty-five years ... they're too CHEAP!!!

Jboulin94

another 900 again today!
American Airlines cancels more flights - Yahoo! News

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ANTHONY F DUVA JR

I was watching this story this evening on the national news with Brian Williams. While he was sitting at his desk talking about American, the channel showed a United logo behind him on the screen. After that, they spelled stabilizer "stabalizer." I could not believe these mistakes!

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NYCAAer

It's nice to read on a message board that somewhere somebody gets it. Some other forums are so blindly pro-management, who think the execs at Master Base can do no wrong. With what our execs have received in bonuses the last 3 consecutive years, we could have bought 4 new 777s.

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+ROUTE OF THE ASTROJETS+

Kevin

Jboulin94

I got an apology today.
As one of our most valued customers, please accept my apology on behalf of American Airlines^® to you, your family and your fellow AAdvantage^® customers for disrupting so many peoples' lives with the recent flight cancellations related to the inspection of our MD-80 aircraft fleet.

As you can imagine, American's decision to cancel thousands of flights this week was difficult, and it undoubtedly created concern among our best customers – even those who had no travel plans during the period.

If in your travels you were among the many who have been personally affected, I sincerely regret the inconvenience you have experienced. Our employees will continue to work around the clock to accommodate all who still need to reach their desired destinations. We anticipate returning to a full schedule by Monday.

While the media reports have documented the reasons why American took this action and the steps we're taking to re-accommodate and compensate affected customers, I've also attached an explanation of the events for your understanding. It's a bit complex, but at the end of it all, please know this:

First, your safety and the safety of our employees remains our number one priority.

Second, we will learn from this experience, and we will get better.

Finally, we wholeheartedly appreciate your loyalty to American Airlines, and we remain committed to earning your business each and every day.

Respectfully,

Dan Garton
Executive Vice President
Marketing

P.S. You may have already contacted us via AA.com^® or by writing directly to Customer Relations. Let me reassure you that we will respond directly to your contact just as quickly as practical.

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