By NNN-Xinhua
Beijing : American Airlines canceled 570 flights scheduled for Friday as it continues its weeklong struggle with aircraft safety inspections.
The cancellation raised the number of flights canceled in this week to more than 3,000 for inspection and repair of wiring in the wheel wells of its Boeing MD-80s.
On Thursday, American canceled over 930 flights related to the MD-80 inspections. That followed the cancellation of 1,094 flights on Wednesday and 460 canceled flights on Tuesday.
The company said in a statement that the flights would have averaged more than 100 passengers, meaning that the disruption has affected more than 300,000 passengers, including Friday’s schedule cuts.
The chief executive of American Airlines accepted “full responsibility” Thursday for failing to meet government inspection standards.
“I am profoundly sorry that we’ve gotten ourselves into this situation, and I thank our customers for their patience under very difficult circumstances,” American CEO Gerard Arpey said.
American is most affected by the inspections, though the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) orders for safety checks have also affected Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines and Midwest Airlines.
FAA’s orders for safety checks were in response to reports that it admitted last month that Southwest Airlines flew jets that hadn’t received critical safety checks.