Has American Airlines Gone Bad?

Airline experts say it's so bad that they're recommending not flying on American unless you have to be there.

As American works through its bankruptcy proceedings, labor strife between the pilots and management is starting to heat up --and passengers are beginning to pay the price.

If you have plans to fly American Airlines this fall you may want to reconsider.


The airline expects to cancel up to 2 percent of its total flights through the end of October because of the disputes. Pilots and crew are calling in sick or delaying fights by getting into a fight with one another, and last-minute maintenance calls are mucking up schedules.

The Allied Pilots Association, the union that represents the 11,000 pilots of American Airlines, says the pilots are not to blame for these mishaps. It blames the cancellations on company mismanagement and problems with old planes.

 American Airlines and American Eagle say they will cancel 300 flights this week to cope with a high number of pilots reporting sick and an increase in maintenance reports filed by crews.That's 1.25 percent of the 24,000 flights that were scheduled by the two airlines, which are owned by AMR Corp.
The two airlines had already canceled 249 flights this week by Wednesday afternoon, a flight-tracking service said, suggesting that cancellations might far exceed American's estimate.