American Air to adjust flight times

American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, will add five to seven minutes to the time scheduled for each flight at its largest airports this fall to reduce delays plaguing U.S. travel.

The airline, a unit of Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp., will begin operations earlier and fly later each day to avoid dropping any flights from its schedule, said David Cush, senior vice president of global sales.

American ranked 13th of 19 carriers in on-time arrivals for the year ending in June. Only 73 percent of U.S. airline flights arrived on time in the first half of 2007, the worst rate since 1995, when the government began keeping comparable records.

"We are adding back some aircraft ground time to take some pressure off" and reduce delays, AMR Chief Executive Officer Gerard Arpey said in New York, as the airline opened a new $1.3 billion terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The additional times will be added to "virtually all" flights from American's largest hubs at Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago, Cush said. Time also may be added to flights at other hubs, Arpey said.

Only 57.9 percent of American flights were on time in June, a month when Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had thunderstorms on more than 20 days.