American Airlines cancels 1,000 more flights for inspections

American Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights today -- almost half of its schedule -- stranding an estimated 100,000 passengers at airports around the country as it grounded planes for another round of maintenance checks.

It was the biggest schedule disruption yet for the nation’s biggest airline, which canceled 460 flights Tuesday when it began re-inspecting wiring bundles on its fleet of MD-80 jets, which are used primarily on short- and medium-haul routes.

American said it couldn’t promise that the inspections would be completed today, raising the possibility that the flight disruptions could continue into Thursday and possibly beyond.

The airline canceled almost 1,000 flights last month when the MD-80s were first grounded for inspection.

The airline canceled 25 of its 92 daily departures at Los Angeles International Airport, where it is the biggest carrier. But unlike major hub cities where it accounts for more than 70% of local flights, it handles only about 15% of the passengers at LAX.

LAX officials estimate that between 2,500 and 3,000 passengers were affected by the cancellations there.

Florida resident Cathy Sutton, 56, was at LAX trying to get to Tampa for her daughter’s wedding Thursday afternoon. “I’m not happy. I’ve got a daughter getting married,” she said.

Figuring that her flight today might be canceled, she began calling American last night and finally got through at midnight. “They told me everything was fine, that everything was on schedule, that there was no problem.”

If she doesn’t make it the wedding tomorrow, she said, “I’ll be devastated, absolutely devastated. My daughter’s on pins and needles. She’s really upset.”

American also canceled two flights at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, five at Ontario International Airport, four at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and 12 at San Diego International Airport.

Adding to travelers’ woes, American reportedly had to shut down its automated flight re-booking system after the computer began re-booking passengers on MD-80 flights that were then scrubbed.

As the cancellations rolled through American’s schedule, customers received e-mails saying they had been re-booked on another flight, only to receive a subsequent e-mail saying that flight had been canceled too.

Dallas-Fort Worth International and Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, home to American’s biggest hubs, were hardest hit by the latest wave of cancellations, with 208 and 138 flights scrubbed at those two airports, respectively.

Passengers were scrambling to re-book on other flights, but with airlines typically running more than 80% full these days, finding an empty seat on short notice can be a problem.

“American will do whatever it takes to assist those affected by these flight changes,” American chief executive Gerald Arpey said. “This includes compensating those inconvenienced customers who stayed overnight in a location away from their final destination.”

American, which has about 2,300 daily departures nationwide, said it decided to ground its fleet of about 300 MD-80s on Tuesday “to ensure precise and complete compliance” with a directive from the Federal Aviation Administration regarding the inspection of wiring bundles in the wheel wells of the aircraft.

It was unclear why American was re-inspecting wiring bundles. The airline said it had assigned a team of technicians to inspect each aircraft to ensure the wiring is installed exactly as specified and that FAA inspectors were examining each airplane for compliance.

The airline maintains that the cancellations are related only to compliance with federal airworthiness regulations and are not a safety issue.

The disruptions rippling through the nation’s air traffic system today are the latest and most dramatic fallout from the rash of maintenance-related problems that have hit U.S. airlines in recent months.

martin.zimmerman@latimes.comandrea.chang@latimes.com