Safety checks add to frustrations for air travelers

With safety issues grounding planes, carrier bankruptcies and skyrocketing fares, air passenger misery this year is hitting a new level.

Wednesday, as Congress held hearings on flight delays and consumer rights, frustrated American Airlines travelers faced more widespread cancellations.

In response to Federal Aviation Administration concerns, American terminated more than 1,550 trips Tuesday and Wednesday to allow wiring checks on its MD-80 fleet, just weeks after maintenance questions first surfaced.

More headaches are expected today with 900 flights terminated.

As he stood in line at O'Hare International Airport waiting to reschedule a trip to Seattle, Dan Martin calculated he had moved about 20 feet in an hour.

The Oak Lawn resident who works for GE was supposed to appear at a business meeting today.

"I have no idea if I'm going to make it," Martin said, adding he thought the maintenance issues sounded avoidable. "I can handle natural concerns, but this sounds like somebody dropped the ball."

Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines also grounded flights Wednesday to address similar concerns with airplane wiring.

Nationwide, about 1,100 American flights were scuttled Wednesday, including 168 at O'Hare. On Tuesday, 460 flights were canceled, with 66 occurring in Chicago. An MD-80 can carry approximately 100 people.

British punk-rockers Simon Cooper and Nick Culmer of the Anti-Nowhere League band planned to be in Los Angeles Wednesday, but their flight was pushed back a day.

Still, Chicago isn't nowhere, they reasoned.

"We'll get a hotel for the night … have a few beers and a nice bit of Chicago cuisine," Cooper said.

"We live in England so we're used to all of this," Culmer said, referring to subway disruptions. "I'd far rather be on the ground than be on our airplane that might not make it back on the ground safely again."

It's likely the travel disruptions will continue. As of Wednesday afternoon, only 179 of American's 300 MD-80s had been re-inspected and 60 returned to service.

Officials anticipated normal service could resume Saturday.

"We have obviously failed to comply with the airworthiness directive to the precise standards the FAA requires," said Gerard Arpey, chief executive of AMR Corp., which owns American.

The airline will reimburse passengers who stayed overnight in hotels, spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said.

"This is a compliance issue related to being sure all the wiring is appropriately secured," Fagan said.

"We will do whatever possible to get passengers to their final destination. We hope to get our aircraft back in service as soon as possible."

The air travel season of discontent started in 2007 with a winter of blizzards and ice storms that threw countless flights awry.

But the arrival of spring held little relief.

Not only did carriers such as ATA Airlines and Aloha Airgroup declare bankruptcy, suddenly stranding hundreds of passengers without notice, the FAA moved to fine Southwest Airlines $10 million on March 6 after finding fatigue cracks in six of its 737s. The airline had failed to perform required inspections for fuselage fatigue cracks, the agency said.

Southwest ended up canceling about 120 flights on its 737s, which hold between 122 and 137 people.

Subsequently, the FAA started a safety audit of all 118 U.S. carriers.

In late March, American and Delta pulled flights to inspect and repair wiring systems in their MD-80 and MD-88 fleets, respectively.

American halted 450 flights, including 89 at O'Hare between March 26 and 27. Delta canceled 275 flights. An

MD-88 holds about 140 people.

On April 2, United Airlines grounded 41 flights, including five at O'Hare, to probe the fire suppression system in its 777s. Each can carry about 250 people, officials said.

Also Wednesday, Delta halted about two dozen flights and Alaska Airlines stopped 14 for wiring checks.

"There was minimal impact to our passengers," Delta spokeswoman Susan Chana Elliott said.

The FAA is instituting changes to improve inspection procedures and noted that its audit showed 99 percent of airlines are in compliance with safety standards.

"We are in the safest period of airline history," FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said.

Some wonder if safety concerns are going too far.

"The American Airlines move is a tremendous overreaction. There are much smarter ways of dealing with the issue than grounding hundreds of aircraft all at once," said DePaul University aviation expert Joseph P. Schwieterman, who is director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.

"Clearly, the FAA should become a more vigorous watchdog. But there's a risk that the pendulum will swing too far, raising havoc on the quality of air service."

Meanwhile, as American scrambled to find alternatives for about 100,000 passengers, Congress held a fourth hearing on airline delays and consumer issues.

The House Subcommittee on Aviation started inquiries after airline delays hit a record number in the first eight months of 2007.

"In 2007, the traveling public saw firsthand the serious problems the current system has with congestion and delays, which at times have led to a breakdown in customer service," said U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, a downstate Democrat who heads the subcommittee.

• Daily Herald staff writer Nadia Malik and news services contributed to this report.