Woes continue for American Airlines

These are troubled times for American Airlines. After a difficult September, American Airlines’ parent company, AMR Corp, posted a $238 million loss for the quarter.

American Airlines suffered massive delays and cancellations in September due to an issue they blamed on pilots. With that delay starting to clear up, American now has another issue to deal with. They are now inspecting 47 Boeing 757 airplanes to check for loose seats. On two separate American Airline flights, passenger seats came loose midflight. This has lead to over 21,000 delayed flights and more than 1,300 flights cancelled all together.

This recent string of woes for the airline will continue, as they have already announced a reduced flight schedule by 1% through November. They also boasted an anemic 59% on-time arrival rate for September. Customers are definitely taking notice, as the number of passengers flying American Airlines fell 4% in September. Business travelers are especially weary of flying American. With the uncertainty over cancellations and delays, business travelers simply cannot take the risk of flying American and having it possibly affect their business.

With all of the current problems American is having, they are working hard on solutions to try to win back customers. It won’t be easy but they are finally starting to move in the right direction. They have at least improved on-time arrival rates through October, although they still trail most of the major airlines in that category.  American needs to do much more if it wants to turn its misfortunes around.

Only time will tell if American Airlines can turn this around and win back customers, but they still have a long way to go.