It’s taken a few weeks, but American Airlines is letting loose its attacks on the FAA. You’ll recall that during the week of April 8th, American Airlines canceled thousands of flights and disrupted travel for close to 300,000 travelers. The groundings were due to required maintenance of American’s M-80 aircraft. When the groundings began, American Airlines was actually pretty quiet on the matter, making it difficult for passengers to get information on which and how many flights would be affected. When American finally returned to the skies in full force, apologies were made, and American Airlines reached out to its frequent fliers with bonus miles options and travel deals. Now, it seems, American Airlines has put the apologies behind them and turned the blame on the FAA…

“The report to be delivered Friday to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters is expected to indicate that the airline thought it had a handshake agreement with regional FAA managers intended to put repairs to wiring systems on its MD-80 aircraft on a schedule that would have kept the entire fleet in the air and avoided massive passenger disruptions.” (from the Wall Street Journal)

The FAA will provide a response to American’s claims, and most believe the agency will link the groundings to work failures and safety hazards on the part of the airline.

As the PR war heats up between AA and the FAA, we’ll witness another round of finger pointing that has grown increasingly worse in the wake of safety concerns surrounding Southwest Airlines. I have said several times before that travelers are the ones who lose in these situations. As the FAA and the airlines bicker and try to save face, it’s passengers that face delays and cancellations due to unspecified maintenance schedules, and its the family members and business associates of those passengers who are further inconvenienced.

As always, I want to stress that safety is of the utmost importance in these situations. However, I’d also like to stress that when government agencies and multi-billion dollar corporations engage in these PR squabbles, we always seem to be the ones who pay for it.