American Airlines on Wednesday canceled more than 1,000 flights, nearly half their entire schedule, to complete inspections on its MD-80 aircraft, a day after the carrier canceled 500 flights.
The airline said the additional MD-80 inspections were being done to “ensure precise and complete compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration’s airworthiness directive related to the bundling of wires in the aircraft’s wheel wells.”
The inspections are related to “detailed, technical compliance issues and not safety-of-flight issues,” American said.
American canceled hundreds of flights two weeks ago for the same reason.
"We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused our customers," said Gerard Arpey, American's CEO. "American will do whatever it takes to assist those affected by these flight changes and our employees are working hard to ensure that we remain their choice for air travel. This includes compensating those inconvenienced customers who stayed overnight in a location away from their final destination."
Arpey said American would return to a full schedule "as quickly as possible."
American said it plans to contract with an independent third party to review American's processes for compliance with all future FAA airworthiness directives.
"This work will ensure that all procedures strictly adhere to the technical elements of every directive so American can avoid this type of schedule disruption in the future," said American.
In the wake of the discovery in early March that Southwest Airlines flew planes that missed safety inspections, the FAA on March 18 announced that it would be conducting audits of airlines’ maintenance records. Since then, American, Delta, United and Southwest have grounded planes and canceled flights to redo safety checks.