As you know, American Airlines -- AMR Corp (NYSE: AMR) has been having a tough week. The company started running a new round of inspections on Tuesday which has led to large cancellations for the past 4fourdays.Today, once again there were more cancellations, with another 595 flights being grounded. It can be very frustrating to find out your flight has been canceled, but some airports are upping their efforts to accommodate the unlucky passengers. All combined, the airliner has been forced to cancel in excess of 3,000 flights this week, impacting some quarter of a million travelers.
We have all had to deal with canceled, or delayed flights... and one thing is for sure, it is never a pleasant feeling, so you can just imagine the mood in airports all across America in reaction to this week's mess. Well, according to a story from MSNBC, some airports are taking extra steps to help make American passengers as comfortable as possible.
People forced to wait in long lines in the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport were given snacks and drinks to help them pass the time in the long customer service lines. In Chicago, passengers were offered cots to use to catch up on some sleep. There are many other examples listed in the news piece.
Unfortunately, it looks as though the current situation is going to carry over into the weekend. Typically, when one airline has a problem, they can count on finding other airlines that are capable of picking up the slack on their passengers, but this is simply just not the case this time around. The airline industry as a whole is only operating at around 80%, so airports are finding that they being stuck with heavier than normal levels of stranded passengers.
Once again, a piece of advice that I have given several times already this week... before heading off to the airport this weekend, please take a few minutes to call ahead and make sure that your flight is still on schedule, and that your trip is still a go. It will save you a lot of time, and trust me, a lot of stress!
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
Why isn't Bank of America updating its shareholders on CEO situation?
Before the bell: Futures sharply lower on Dubai's debt problems
Will Rich Ross really have a positive impact on Disney's movie operations?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-11-2008 @ 5:58PM
NewsVisual said...
The Board of Directors for AMR Corp, the parent company of American Airlines, will have their public relations work cut out for them in the coming months after the cancellation of thousands of flights throughout the week. Friday saw no end in sight to the company’s crisis: "AMR Corp's American Airlines canceled 595 more flights today, the fourth day of travel disruptions caused by grounding its Boeing Co. MD-80 jets to inspect and repair wiring," Bloomberg News reported in an article on Friday. The company’s long-term share value is surely in jeopardy given the scope of the problem as well as the flying public’s dissatisfaction over how the airline has coped with it to date. Since it’s within the AMR Corp Directors’ mandate to protect the interest of the company’s shareholders, they must step up to the plate in future weeks with constructive advice on what AMR should do to mitigate the harm to the company.
4-12-2008 @ 2:49PM
David Donar said...
It looks like American is going to change their name to American't.
http://politicalgrafitti.blogspot.com/2008/04/americant-airlines.html
4-12-2008 @ 4:14PM
Michael.Fowlkes said...
Nice picture there David. A few more days of cancellations and you will be right!
4-13-2008 @ 2:25PM
David Donar said...
Thanks Michael, please feel free to use my cartoon in any other post.
I look forward to reading future posts!
DD