The real reason behind American's flight cancllations today...
 

Gas prices. Anyone who believes it has to do with "mechanical inspections" is completely naive...

I'm honestly surprised the press hasn't picked up on this scandal.

I think they would just pass the cost onto ticket buyers.

US airlines are in the safest period in aviation history. There aren't big crashes in the US anymore. All of the extra maintenance requirements are responsible.

With the fear of terrorism and the frustration of long lines, the last thing they need are crashes. A third reason not to fly would certainly do an airline or two in.

:2 cents:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/04/09....ap/index.html

So they are putting people on other airlines and spending more money to save their own gas?

Didnt a different airline get nailed for not keeping up to date with required inspections and or repairs? Seems they would get a little paranoid themselves and get their shit straight.

I mean its not like they get to cancel all the tickets and keep the money. Grounding that many flights on gas pricing alone is a silly concept. Why would anyone speculate that gas prices will drop in the near future when those tickets are reused, if not already refunded?

Spot on, imho.

Nothing to do with gas prices. heres the real reason.


http://www.anicepair.com/images/mechanicalproblems.jpg

you're an idiot

Yep, this is what started the whole inspection craze. Delta had to cancel a ton of flights to re-inspect every MD 88 they have which was a large part of their fleet.

Matt

Planes look sweet underneath.. They should make a plexiglass plane, that would turn some heads.

When u think better,it is actually very posible...

Hmm... I hope that's a 'chop :)

i agree...

What the hell are you talking about? The oil companies and the airlines are in this together with the trial lawyers and 7/11's. It all started with the slushee machines.

:helpme

Sorry its not a chop its a real image:Oh crap

hahaha... Can I setup a merchant account with you? Wait, never mind you're an asshole.

The problem is, these are tickets that have already been purchased. You can increase your fares a bit, but that only affects last-minute ticket purchasers. Increase it too much and you start to lose customers.

I agree that it's safer than ever to fly. However, we are talking about the MD-80's, airplanes that are 1) American Airlines's most fuel inefficient equipment, and 2) have been in service for close to 30 years. Only now are they doing something about it? Something's a little fishy here..

Look at this fact Sly: American Airlines will spend $2.6 BILLION dollars more on fuel in 2008 than it spent in 2007. For ever $0.33 the price of a gallon increases, American sees a $1 billion increase in their gas bill for the year. If it were cheaper not to fly your own airplanes and put people on other flights, wouldn't you? Remember, airlines don't pay anything when they codeshare on other flights. Heck, they pay close to nothing even on airlines not in their codeshare.

That looks like a wing-mounted engine, no? The MD series has rear fuselage-mounted engines far from of any windows I thought....

I thought the same exact thing when I saw his post. Some people just never get it

bro......

its scary to think you actually represent a business.

That is not bad idea,you could detect possible problem in that case.

The airlines, much as UPS/Fedex, have contracts they've made years ago to ensure their supply of fuel does not increase fundamentally. Stop thinking that everyone fills up at the local 7-11. When you're burning thousands of gallons per day, you can pretty much name your price.

You're brilliant

Tell me about it...looks like this thread is bringing out all the dickheads. Their flights must have been cancelled today...

Actually that honor falls to Qantas Australia.

However with recent changes meaning maintenance is outsourced to south-east asia chances are this will change.

-Ben

you're right... anyone that doesn't get your insane "theory" is a dickhead.

makes perfect sense. maybe tomorrow Microsoft will make Windows crash on every single computer in the US simultaneously, then help everyone switch to Linux to help save money on customer support as part of a long term business strategy.

Don't forget because there are 300M people in America that small increases in anything makes the aggregate a BIG, SCARY NUMBER.

for some reason i'm just intrigued by theories where the person putting the theory forward is completely confused as to why he is only one on the planet that "gets it"

i just can't seem to wrap my head around the thinking where someone can honestly believe "no one gets it but me", therefore "all of YOU must be the idiot"

Was AA's stock sinking over 11% today part of this brilliant strategy too?

i believe it was american airlines and it took place, the week prior to the 31st of march.

Of course. The idea of all the work, money etc that goes into selling and setting up a plane to fly is obviously less then the cost overrun they are experiencing on the fuel. Not that fuel went up yesterday or last week but has been going up for years. Still the breaking point is now as this airline feels it is better to piss everyone off and lose tons of cash and goodwill rather then pay the extra 10% gas went up last week.

And now is the payoff they will issue stock options and cash in later when the stock rises. Or declare bankruptcy when no one buys a ticket on their airline for fear that they will try and "save some gas money again."

Amazing the media hasn't cottoned to this....

Aha! the REAL conspiracy emerges! The AA executives had obviously shorted the stock yesterday to cover the cost of the rising gas prices...

hark...did you say conspiracy?

:pimp

I smelllll a conspiracyyyyy

again im summoned from my slumber

the mechanical issue actually exists now for 4 years but nothing has been said nor done before. there have been many emergency landings by some of the airline companies and finally the problem got out on the surface

And he likes flying Southwest.

"Sir, what is your number? I am A4."
Old man.

"Just go dude. I am not going to do this all day, just go ahead of me."
Me.

It's called "branding."

Acrylic would be the shit!

And there we have it... Cory didn't even mean to solve the AA mystery ( I don't think ) but he did.

AA just wants to be in the news to get their name out there :winkwink: That's why all the flight cancelations.

Who are you again?

a) AMR has been on a steady decline since October of last year and b) all the airline stocks were in the red yesterday. At only $1 or so above the 52-week low, it might be a great time to snap some shares up...

If people don't think the cost of gas has an effect on an airline's bottom line, I have some Aloha, ATA, and Skybus tickets I'll sell you all for cheap. Oh, and that was just last week.

This thread needs more photoshop.

haha. same thing i thought of.

Sadly you really dont want to know the age of some of the planes you fly on. some are older than most of you.