American Airlines cancels thousands of flights.
Imagine being one of American Airlines’ passengers during these past couple of days when they have canceled more than 2,000 flights due to technical compliance issues. While we tip our hat to AA for making a hard call and putting safety compliance above all other concerns, it should have never gotten to this point.And AA is not alone. Other airlines have canceled flights lately for the same reason, including Alaskan, Midwest, Delta, Southwest and United. Part of this mad rush to ensure compliance is because of the very public criticism the Federal Aviation Administration is receiving for apparently having grown too cozy to the industry it’s supposed to monitor. Now it appears that the FAA is scurrying to look as tough as ever, while the airlines are dotting all their i’s and crossing all their t’s to ward off any concern that safety has suffered. “I think [the FAA is] approaching losing the confidence of the American people and of the Congress,” CNN reported Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, saying yesterday. That may be an understatement!
CNN also reported that, as frustrated travelers waited in line, AA staffers came around offering free coffee and snacks, but most people just turned their nose up at the lame offering in disgust. We’re kind of surprised AA didn’t try to charge for the grub.
