American Airlines cancels Bob Hope flights

BURBANK — American Airlines canceled its entire schedule of flights in and out of Bob Hope Airport on Wednesday and Thursday after a string of nationwide cancellations as the carrier works to correct problems related to wiring in its MD-80 planes.

Eight trips, originally scheduled to and from the airline’s hub in Fort Worth, Texas — four each on Wednesday and Thursday — stranded more than 800 customers in Burbank as American continued its federally mandated investigation into the wrapping and securing of wire bundles in the wheel wells of all American’s 300 MD-80 jets, officials said.

“The concern is not the wiring, it’s the spacing of ties on the wiring bundle,” airline spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said. “We received an airworthiness directive from the [Federal Aviation Administration] and found that some of the bundles were not in complete compliance.”

On Tuesday, the carrier canceled 460 flights around the country, and canceled more than 1,000 flights Wednesday and 922 Thursday, according to Huguely, who maintained the problem did not directly affect the planes’ safety.

“These directives are very detailed,” she said. “This issue is a technical compliance issue, not a safety issue.”

By Friday evening, American expects 180 of its MD-80s to be back in service and is forecasting all planes to run on their regularly scheduled times by Saturday, she said.

Accommodations were made for stranded passengers who wanted to fly out of another regional airport, stay at an area hotel overnight or take another airline, Huguely said.

“We’re just doing whatever we can to try and take care of our customers,” she said.

The economic toll on the airline is expected to be significant, according to American Airlines Chairman Gerard Arpey, who said at a news conference in Dallas on Thursday morning that “it will be in the tens of millions of dollars.”

Bob Hope Airport could feel a fiscal squeeze from the lack of flights, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.

“The airport gets money when passengers park, when they visit the concessions, and we eventually see something if they rent cars,” he said.

The airport also receives a $100 landing fee for each plane that sets down at Bob Hope, and it tacks on a $4.50 passenger facility charge for each departing customer, Gill said.