Miami, Fla. -
American Airlines has resume flight operations following yesterday's computer system crash which forced the airline to halt all flights from departing and ultimately forced 862 flight to be cancelled and about 2,200 to be severely delayed.
Dallas, TX -
American Airlines' reservation system went down earlier today (Tuesday) and was forced to halt all flight departures until the system could be brought back online.
---Update: 4:42pm ET; American has begun cancelling some flights, an estimated 200 so far. American urged passengers to call ahead to confirm flight status. Delays are also likely to spread into tomorrow's flights as American struggles to get aircraft positioned in the correct place along with flight crews who have reached their maximum working hours allowed by the FAA---
New York City -
Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane has denied AMR's $20 million severance package that was to be given to AMR Chief Tom Horton, AMR is the parent company of American Airlines which is still in bankruptcy and recently agreed to merge with U.S. Airways after significant pressure and a long campaign by U.S. Airways to American's creditors and unions.
In his ruling, Judge Lane said the payout was not allowed under bankruptcy law.
The severance package of about $19.9 million was divided equally between cash and stock, and was part of the companies' merger agreement in February.
Dallas, TX -
American Airlines has revealed its new livery for the entire AA fleet.
In a written statement, American Airlines CEO Tom Horton wrote, “Our changes on the outside reflect how we’re evolving on the inside. Our new logo and the refreshed exterior of our planes represent more than a change of symbol, but a symbol of change in our path to modernize and innovate.”
The change in livery is the first in 40 years for the airline as it tried to revamp its fleet with newer fuel efficient aircraft and emerge from bankruptcy.
New reports have surfaces that show a few details of the proposed deal U.S. Airways is making in an effort to merge with American Airlines.
American Airlines is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and had hoped to exit bankruptcy as a stand alone carrier and then deal with any possible merger talks.
But U.S. Airways have lobbied hard to American's creditors and Unions, winning support from several, which is forcing American to at least go through the negotiating process, and the two carriers have previously signed non-disclosure agreements.
Chicago, IL -
An American Airlines flight attendant, 65-year-old Sheila A. Schultz, was arrested yesterday at Chicago's O'Hare airport after TSA found a loaded handgun in her bag while going through security.
The flight attendant said there has been a misunderstanding between herself and her husband because the gun belonged to her husband.
Schultz has been charged with one count of boarding an aircraft with a weapon and one count of possessing a firearm without an owner's identification card.
New York City -
An American Airlines Boeing 757 was forced to make an emergency landing at JFK airport in New York after a row of seats on the plane came loose.
The flight, which occured on Saturday, had 175 passenger on board and the plane landed safely with no injuries according to American Airlines. The row the came unbolted was row 12.
American is currently in bankruptcy and U.S. Airway is tryig to take over the bankrupt airline as the two have entered talks.
American Airlines has said it will be trimming its September and October flight schedules as talks with pilots continue to go nowhere and pilots call in sick and report maintenance issues on flights causing even more delays.
So far American has said it will reduce flights by about 1% overall, but according to flight data, American has already suffered a nearly 3% cancellation rate, much higher than the industry which is currently at 0.9%. On Monday alone, American had to cancel 73 flights.
Houston, TX -
ExpressJet has lost all but two of the stations it handled for United Airlines after United put Out RFP's earlier this year, the only two remaining are Asheville, NC and Harlingen, Texas. All ground handling, ticketing and gate operations have been either awarded to other bidders such as Regional Elite or United is taking back to mainline service.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ordered both American Airlines (AMR Corp., of Ft Worth) and United Airlines (United Continental Holdings, of Chicago) to stand trial over negligence claims filed against the airlines following the September 11th terrorist attacked in New York in 2001.