American Airlines: Maintenance Cuts.

American Airlines has been facing more and more maintenance issues / questions as the carrier makes plans to shut-down one of the three currently operating maintenance bases for their aircraft. The incident on Wednesday, causing an American Airlines jet to make an emergency landing in New York, has raised more eyebrows about American’s maintenance. BusinessWeek has a good article on it.

Much speculation about American’s large MD-80 fleet is getting attention as well; the older they get, the more likely they are to break. It was just last April that America had to ground their entire MD-80 series fleet for electrical rewiring, canceling many flights. My last trip to Arizona, one of my connecting flights was canceled due to problems with the aircraft – fortunately the good folks at American re-booked me on the next flight, 100% load factor. You can read my review of the airline’s performance here.

Maintenance has been one of the biggest issues this year at American; the FAA asked American to pay a $7.1 million civil penalty for continuing to fly two jets after an FAA inspector and American Airlines mechanics found problems with their autopilot systems. You’d think that when your mechanics are doing their job, you would trust them and fix the problem.

American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have a lot in common: both carriers received hefty penalties for maintenance issues, and both are based in Dallas, TX. Both carriers worked with the FAA’s regional office in Dallas, which was believed to be corrupt / broken.

American’s past year in their maintenance operations surly draws attention and criticism. I’ll be flying them in a few weeks; hopefully everything will be in order. I’ll be sure to write a detailed review for everyone.

Side note, this is Aviation-Buzz’s 200th post since the site’s startup in July. Only a few months before the site celebrates its one year anniversary!