American Expected To Resume Full Schedule

(AP)  American Airlines planned to return to a full and normal flight schedule Sunday after a last day of flight cancellations on Saturday.

The largest U.S. airline canceled 200 Saturday flights, bringing the week's total to about 3,100 flight cancellations. The cancellations started on Tuesday when Fort Worth-based American grounded 300 MD-80 jets to wrap wiring bundles to meet federal safety standards and prevent fires.

As of Saturday morning, American has received clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration for all but three MD-80s to return to service, American spokesman Charley Wilson said.

"That being said, we still need to get the planes positioned for their next flights," he said Saturday.

American planned to return to normal operations Saturday afternoon, but it will be Sunday morning before all MD-80s can be positioned throughout the American system to fly a full day's schedule, Wilson said.

The cancellations stranded hundreds of thousands of people during the week.

The airline's mechanics and FAA inspectors cleared more of the planes to return to service Friday. American said 226 of its MD-80s were back in service by Friday morning, and it expected the rest to be ready by Saturday night.

The groundings had come as a surprise. American officials said they thought they had the needed repair work completed two weeks ago when it scrubbed more than 400 flights, but the FAA said the wiring still was not secured and stowed properly in wheel wells.

Gerard Arpey, chairman and chief executive of American's parent company AMR Corp., said the costs of the cancellations to the airline will run into the tens of millions of dollars - including vouchers to reimburse stranded customers, overtime for maintenance crews and lost revenue. An analyst with Standard & Poor's estimated it could easily top $30 million (euro19 million).

Arpey said that neither American's mechanics nor the FAA were to blame for the groundings, and he said he took responsibility for the cancellations. He said the company would hire a consultant to help it comply with FAA safety rules in the future.

American's entire fleet averages 15 years in age, the second oldest in the industry behind Northwest Airlines, according to regulatory filings by the airlines.

Arpey said Thursday that American may accelerate the replacement of its MD-80s, but only because newer planes get better mileage, an important consideration with fuel at record prices. The CEO pointedly said the recent groundings were not a factor in the decision to replace the MD-80s.

[jtormey3]

Quiet Rockland urges each Honorable U.S. Senator to further forestall any vote on %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell%u2019s confirmation. Additionally, Quiet Rockland urges all Senators, and all Americans, to carefully consider the manifold reasons why any vote in support of %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell would be antithetical to the interests of this country and its citizens. What we want, is what is in the best interests of the American people %u2013 removal of %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell from office, NOW. The talent pool is deeper than this. There is more to leadership than rhapsodizing through one%u2019s old aviator goggles. We have an ugly aviation safety crisis and scandal on our hands. Let%u2019s wash our hands of it. Let%u2019s wash our hands of %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell and his [f]ailed [a]viation [a]dministration. Quiet Rockland urges all Americans to Just Say No to %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell. Quiet Rockland urges all Americans to let all of our elected officials hear that, loud and clear. Enter, Sandman. The further case against Bobby Sturgell is posted at the following website:
http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com

[jtormey3]

Even if you assume arguendo that Mr. Sturgell did not himself personally make or sanction threats against aviation safety whistleblowers, the offensive activity occurred at a failed federal agency under his watch %u2013 as did all the other offensive FAA activity recently unearthed. The April 3 House hearing chronicled many other of %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell%u2019s FAA failures. During that hearing we also learned that circa 2003 the FAA launched a %u201CPartnership Program%u201D wherein individuals spent months hand-delivering packets to airlines, happily announcing that airlines had become the %u201Ccustomers%u201D and %u201Cclients%u201D of the FAA. That%u2019s flat wrong. WE THE PEOPLE are the customers of the FAA. The FAA is supposed to regulate the airlines. The FAA is not supposed to kiss the backsides of the airlines. As for %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell%u2019s role and involvement in all of this perversion of justice and dereliction of federal duty, one only need note that %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell started work at the FAA in the very same year as the %u201CPartnership Program%u201D was launched %u2013 2003. %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell is a private dancer for the very airline industry that callously and inhumanly threatens our safety. Never mind fox and henhouse. Just throw the bums out.

[jtormey3]

While we find it unbelievable, a few Senators, and even possibly the President, continue to this day to support %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell as FAA Head. Quiet Rockland disagrees. We are proud Americans who believe in the integrity of the American system of government. We want national stability, national security, aviation safety, environmental justice, and aviation justice. We%u2019re sick of our country%u2019s aviation system being laughed at by other countries. We want to foster continued public pride in our government, and a continued belief that the system works - in the eyes of U.S. citizens, and in the eyes of the rest of the world. %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell%u2019s removal as Acting FAA Head is integral to these goals.

[jtormey3]

%u201CThe FAA%u2019s hands-off approach to airline oversight has allowed %u2026deliberate violations%u2026, shoddy maintenance, incomplete record-keeping, and complacent oversight practices to fester%u201D%u2026 %u201CWhy were%u2026 potentially unsafe planes allowed to fly%u2026?%u201D

Instead of protecting our safety like they are supposed to do, the FAA, in continuing complicity with the airlines, threatens hero aviation inspector whistleblowers. The House Transportation Committee hearing on Thursday April 3, 2008 exposed all of that in a 9-hour webcast, for all the world to see. As Congressman James Oberstar the Head of the House Transportation Committee observed, if last Thursday%u2019s hearing %u201Chad been a grand jury proceeding, it would have resulted in indictments%u201D.

[jtormey3]

This past week saw record numbers, in the thousands, of planes grounded. The groundings are %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell%u2019s fault. The groundings are the direct result of a previously-illusory safety inspection regime and the astounding and unlawful regulatory ineptitude of the FAA, now under FBI investigation and Congressional investigation. The results of the groundings to the everyday American, were and are intolerable. Many thousands of travelers were stranded, and we are told by some that the problem may continue through the summer and beyond. This is what %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell would have all Americans endure for FIVE more years if he is confirmed as FAA Administrator? He MUST be joking.

Moreover, %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell now threatens our national stability and security. As John Dean observed almost two generations ago at the outset of the long national nightmare known as Watergate, there is a cancer growing on the Presidency. There is a cancer growing on the Administration, and on this country. That very cancer is failed FAA Acting Administrator %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell himself, and the rogue dysfunctional federal agency known as the FAA. %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell must be ejected. The FAA must be repopulated with competent and honest federal officials. As Senators Lautenberg and Menendez observed in an April 10, 2008 letter to %u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell:

[jtormey3]

http://ejectsturgell.blogspot.com

%u201CBobby%u201D Sturgell is an abominable public official. The current regime of the FAA is a dismal nightmare. The FAA is a guileful federal agency still dwelling in the pocket of industry. Together, Sturgell, the FAA, and the airlines derisively and contemptuously laugh at you and me, the American people %u2013 the people to whom this country belongs. But no more.

This spring started with cracked Southwest Airlines planes. The FAA allowed these planes to remain in revenue service. The FAA allowed passengers to fly in these cracked airplanes. And Southwest was more than happy to take money from passengers for flying in these cracked planes. Now but a few weeks later, at least four airlines have filed for federal bankruptcy protection, with more bankruptcy filings that may follow. The airline industry is disintegrating before our eyes just like the tired old defective planes which they pretend to maintain.

[crater7]

''AMERICAN EXPECTED TO RESUME FULL SCHEDULE'';

"AMERICANS" SHOULD RESUME THEIR SCHEDULE WITHOUT FLYING AMERICAN AIRLINES.

I WOULD EVEN SUGGEST ONE STEP FURTHER, THE AMERICAN FLYING PUBLIC SHOULD OBSERVE A NATIONAL ''FLY-OUT" DAY.
A ONE DAY BOYCOTT WOULD BE ENOUGH TO SEND A MESSAGE TO CONGRESS TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE OUT OF CONTROL TACTICS OF THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY.THIS ONE DAY FLY-OUT WILL BE ENOUGH TO CONVIENCE THE AIR LINE INDUSTRY, THAT AMERICAN''S ARE MADDER THAN H*LL AND AREN''T GOING TO TAKE THEIR ABUSE ANYMORE.

TAKE THE TRAIN AMERICA...

[termtex01]

That contact information was freely available to anyone with internet access.

http://media-newswire.com/release_1059545.html

"Help Further Expose Congressman John Mica''s Egregious Aero-Mercantile Pandering.
Rockland County, New York Residents Demand Documents From Florida Rep. John Mica, The FAA, And The USDOT, Regarding Alleged Shilling By Congressman Mica For Monied Aeronautical Interests And The FAA "NY/NJ/PHL Airspace Redesign".
"

[termtex01]

For more information, contact the environmental whackos at ''Quiet Rockland'' at:

John J. Tormey III, Esq.: [e-mail]%u201D, 1-212-410-4142

[termtex01]

"suburban New York activist group %u201CQuiet Rockland%u201D "

So, what gives them any status to demand anything, other than deep pockets and liberal lawyers?