Airline Woes Continue But Unanswered Questions Remain

American Airlines continues to ground flights after failing to inspect hundreds of planes for serious defects. They're not alone as other airlines are checking their MD-80s for problems as well:

Other carriers operating similar aircraft also left passengers scrambling for alternatives as they also grounded flights to inspect the wire bundles at the heart of a renewed safety crackdown by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Alaska Airlines canceled 11 more flights early Thursday as it continued to inspect its nine MD-80 jets. Spokeswoman Caroline Boren in Seattle said that follows 28 cancellations on Wednesday and three on Tuesday. The airline was working to accommodate affected passengers, she said.

Midwest Airlines canceled at least 10 flights Thursday after it grounded all of its 13 MD-80 planes to deal with the same issue. Spokesman Mike Brophy said federal regulators cleared the planes to fly, but airline executives decided they should be re-inspected by Midwest personnel.

Delta Air Lines was likely to ground "a handful of flights" Thursday, but was expecting "minimal cancellations and minimal customer impact," spokeswoman Betsy Talton said. The carrier operates 117 MD-80 series planes.

The problems could be just beginning. The latest checks are part of a second phase of audits being carried out by the FAA, which came under pressure from lawmakers after its inspectors were found to be too lax with Southwest Airlines Co. last year. That round of inspections runs through June 30.

American, the nation's largest carrier, said Friday it had cancelled 933 flights for the day. The airline has now scrubbed nearly 2,500 flights since Tuesday, when federal regulators warned that nearly half its planes could violate a safety regulation designed to prevent fires. That's more than one in three flights canceled over the last three days.

The cozy relationship between the FAA and the airlines is a longstanding and troubling problem - the agency designed to oversee security and safety - all too often puts the financial health of those airlines ahead of that of the safety.

Yet, there may be a silver lining to all this. Has anyone bothered to check and see whether all those grounded flights has resulted in fewer delays for all the remaining flights around the country? In places like New York City's airports, the airlines book more flights than are physically capable of taking off in peak periods, so one has to wonder whether the cancellations are doing anything to mitigate the delays travelers often face.