American cuts more flights; fliers fume

AP via Yahoo! ^ | 4/11/07 | HARRY R. WEBER

[Santa Fe_Conservative]

ATLANTA - Air traveler angst was sure to continue Friday as American Airlines grounded hundreds more flights. The financial toll and loss of goodwill likely would grow as well, as the inspection-related mess spread further to other carriers and hurt an industry already bleeding cash thanks to high fuel costs.

Lawmakers were asking questions and some fed-up air travelers headed for trains. Others gave the airlines a pass, saying the companies were doing the best they could.

"If somebody's got a choice between being in a plane crash and being late, is there a choice?" Jane Bernard, a writer from New York who was delayed by at least three hours en route from LaGuardia Airport to Miami, said Thursday.

Mingo Valencia, a 60-year-old stuck at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while heading home to Midland, Texas, wasn't so gracious.

"Poor management," he said bluntly.

Congress also weighed in Thursday. The Federal Aviation Administration official who ordered safety audits last month, Nicholas Sabatini, faced tough questions from a Senate subcommittee about the agency's lax oversight of airlines and his own accountability for recent breakdowns. The FAA noted that airlines had 18 months to check electrical wiring on MD-80 jets since an initial order was issued in September 2006.

[an amused spectator]

They are called "Instructions for Continued Airworthiness" for a reason, and compliance to them is required under the code of federal regulations (CFR) title 14. Or does the law no longer mean anything?

Ask Bill Clinton. How many years is he serving for perjury, witness tampering and obstruction again?

Hey, but at least the Obsessive-Compulsive nutballs who were chasing him spent tens of millions of dollars to prove that - what?

"The law" is only there to eff with and screw over the peasants...

You peasants sleeping in the terminal chairs all over the country have a good night - ya hear? ;-)

[an amused spectator]

I'm sorry if I sound kind of cynical about this stuff - but I've been steeping in the tea of governmental OCD nutballism for maybe 5 years longer than you.

Gets in your bones.

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

UGH!!! Listen to this.... I am FUMING! —

As of 9/2/08, AA will cancel their only daily non-stop flight from Baltimore to San Juan, Puerto Rico (that’s the flight I always take home) and will also cancel their only daily non-stop from Washington-Dulles to San Juan — so therefore, us who live in the D.C. and Baltimore corridor will have to fly to Miami or NY-JFK in order to connect to go to San Juan — AND, IN ADDITION — today United Airlines proposed to cancel their only non-stop flight to San Juan from Washington-Dulles, so we don’t even have any options, as far as taking another airlines with a direct flight.

This will prompt me to travel less to the island.

[cll]

I think Spirit will open a route from DCA to SJU. Let me check with my sister who works there.