FORT WORTH -- Flight delays and cancellations continued for thousands of American Airlines passengers Friday as the carrier and its pilots traded barbs on who is to blame for the operational problems.
Each side says the other is making disingenuous statements about pilot sick time and maintenance issues.American says pilots are filing last-minute maintenance requests and taxiing slowly, and the pilots union says the problem is of management's own making because the company did not keep up with maintenance on its fleet."We know for a fact that pilots have shown up at airplanes with maintenance write-ups, put in by maintenance, but yet the crew gets the delay because they have to report it and say, 'We can't go yet because we have a maintenance issue,'" Allied Pilots Association President Keith Wilson said in an interview Friday.He said that pilots are under increased scrutiny by the Federal Aviation Administration and that they are being cautious and doing "everything by the book."In a statement, the FAA said it is "conducting specialized Operational Risk surveillance" on American. It stepped up surveillance of all aspects of flight operations at American Airlines when the company filed for bankruptcy protection, as the agency has done with other carriers in similar circumstances, the FAA said."Our primary focus is on ensuring that the company's financial situation does not negatively affect the safety of the traveling public," the agency said.The union gave examples of some of the maintenance write-ups this week that caused delays, including a broken pilot oxygen mask, a main landing gear hydraulic leak and fuel tank seepage on the ramp.American spokesman Bruce Hicks said the carrier isn't questioning normal maintenance reports made by pilots, only the ones that weren't safety-related or the ones in which mechanics have found nothing wrong.Hicks said the number of reports in which a mechanic "responded to a pilot's complaint and found nothing wrong" has increased 97 percent in September.Cancellations caused by maintenance issues have risen from an average of seven per day to more than 31 per day from Sept. 6 to Sept. 20, he said.Pilots' sick leave use is up 21 percent in September compared with the same period last year, Hicks said. That has caused American to reduce capacity. To handle the increase in write-ups, American is bringing in mechanics from its Tulsa maintenance facility to airport hubs and has offered overtime for mechanics, Hicks said.In a note sent to pilots Thursday night, Wilson reiterated that the union is not advocating a sickout or any other work slowdown. He told pilots to "cease immediately" any actions that intentionally cause delays.American has threatened to take the union to court if the delays continue, and Wilson said the carrier would likely succeed in obtaining a court injunction.But in another letter to pilots Friday, the union said that American managers are acting like "bullies" and that the union is willing to restart contract negotiations with American and "be the adult in this relationship."No talks have been scheduled.Hicks said the negotiations and the carrier's possible legal action are unrelated issues that both need to be addressed."We simply couldn't wait to deal with the issue of the operational disruption that is damaging our business," Hicks said. "It's unfair to our customers and it has to stop."Andrea Ahles, 817-390-7631Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
