American Airlines plunges over the cliff - Third world closes in

American air travel has been plunged into a state of chaos over the course of the past two weeks, Southwest, Delta Air Lines, United, as well as American Airlines. Passengers, have seen masses of cancellations due to a safety alert on Boeing MD -80 planes.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicts that mass cancellations will continue for the next eight weeks, as it intends to keep checking up on aircraft safety inspections and enforcing mandatory checks where these have not occurred.

All this relates to a clampdown on an 18 month old advisory on undercarriage housing wiring on Boeing MD -80 and the exact spacing of wire bundles.

As a result , American Airlines cancelled another 900 flights Thursday following two straight days which saw the largest carrier in the United States announce well over 2,400 3,000 cancellations.

According to a BBC estimate, more than 100,000 passengers have been inconvenienced by the cancellations, which occurred after American Airlines decided to pull almost all 300 of its workhorse MD-80 aircraft, in order to perform urgent safety checks.The company reports all its MD-80s would be back in service by Saturday night.

CEO Gerard Arpey (in post since May 2004 and with airline since 1992, cash compensation 2006 = US$10Mn) said he took full responsibility for the airline's failure to comply with a federal safety rule designed to prevent electrical fires in the planes.

The airline cancelled more than 400 flights for the same reason two weeks ago. But the repairs done then didn't meet FAA standards, resulting in this week's debacle.

Dallas Airport has virtually shut as a result - as a result some of Lord Patel's staff returning from a fact finding visit to Hawaii have , after 36 hours of non-communication from harassed but nonetheless rude and unhelpful AA staff - then hire a car and drive 900 miles to return to our North America HQ.

There are many, many, people out there who won't be flying AA again.