Travelers Stranded by American Strike : Labor: Flight attendants start a walkout planned for 11 days. Passengers scramble for seats on rival carriers. Pilots may join strike, adding to holiday week problems.

A strike launched by American Airlines flight attendants Thursday severely hampered the nation’s second-largest carrier, forcing the cancellation of flights across the country and stranding travelers as the busy Thanksgiving Day holiday approaches.

On the first day of a planned 11-day walkout, American said that only about half its flights departed with passengers. The remainder were either canceled or took off without customers because of a lack of qualified flight attendants. The job action is the largest walkout against an airline since machinists struck now-defunct Eastern Airlines in 1989.

Frustrated business people and vacationers, who had crossed picket lines and waited in lengthy check-in lines in airports nationwide, were stunned to see their jets pull away from the gate without passengers.

“They didn’t even have the courage to make an announcement,” said Jerry Resnikoff of Los Angeles after his Dallas-bound jet took off from Los Angeles International Airport with only the flight crew and cargo.

At John Wayne Airport, where the airline is the largest carrier, the strike forced 14 flights to leave without passengers.

“Out of 17 flights, we had about three with any passengers on them,” said Doug Scherf, American’s manager at John Wayne. “We had to let the others go too, because the planes were needed elsewhere for other flights later in the day.”

The airline wanted to keep planes moving to their next destination in hopes there would be sufficient flight attendants to allow passengers to board.

“The problem isn’t people canceling,” Scherf said. “It’s that we can’t let planes take off (with passengers) without sufficient crews.”

Scherf said he expects the full, 24-departure schedule at John Wayne to be flown today.

At least 90% of the 21,000 flight attendant union members refused to cross picket lines Thursday, according to union officials.

American’s operations face another threat today when its pilots union will release results of a vote by members on whether to strike in sympathy with the flight attendants. American’s pilots will begin their labor negotiations with the carrier next year.

“If the pilots honor it, they will shut down the airline,” said transportation consultant Harold Sirkin. “You can’t get replacements for them quickly.”

The Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants called the strike early Thursday morning after marathon negotiations in New Orleans failed to result in an agreement.

Although American has offered to raise wages, flight attendants say the increase would be eaten away by concessions the carrier said are needed to restore long-term profits. The airline wants fewer attendants on some flights and wants union members to contribute toward health and retiree benefits.

“It became very clear that we could not take an agreement with that many concessions in it,” said union President Denise Hedges.

The labor concessions American seeks are similar to cost-cutting efforts being pursued by most other major airlines seeking to restore profits after $10 billion in combined losses over the past three years. Despite signs of economic improvement, American, United Airlines and other U.S. carriers remain under pressure to reduce costs in an era of slow growth and low-fare carriers, such as Southwest Airlines.

American had managed to get only a handful of its daytime flights out of several Southern California airports with passengers, according to travel agents. About six flights had departed from Los Angeles International, which normally has more than 40 departures.

At Burbank Airport, only one of four scheduled departures went out, and at Ontario International Airport, two of 10 flights departed with passengers, airport officials said.

American Eagle commuter flights were not involved in the strike, which the union said should end Nov. 29. Union officials say the limited duration of the strike will allow members to return to work without fear of losing their jobs to replacement workers, who need at least 10 days of federally mandated safety training before being qualified to work.

Federal regulations require airlines to have at least one qualified flight attendant for every 50 seats--regardless of how many passengers-- before a plane can depart.

The lack of qualified flight attendants triggered delays and cancellations throughout American’s worldwide operations, which funnel an average of 250,000 people a day to more than 200 cities. At American’s hub in Dallas, Jackie Mueller had been trying to get home to Long Beach all day, but two flights were canceled and she was not sure whether she would be leaving on a third.

American’s passenger traffic was halted for several hours to and from its important Caribbean hub in San Juan, Puerto Rico. And industry sources said American was unable to carry any passengers out of Europe in the strike’s opening stages.

Many competing carriers added reservations operators and flights to accommodate stranded American passengers. Most other major carriers have said they will honor most, but not all, American tickets. Continental, Delta and USAir have been among those airlines that will not honor tickets earned with frequent flier miles.

United Airlines said it handled about 8,000 displaced American passengers in Chicago, where both airlines operate hubs.

Continental Airlines added a wide-body jet between Houston and Dallas and sold all 300 seats.

“We’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of American customers today,” said Ned Walker of Continental Airlines. “We’ve seen the number of customers from American grow as the day progresses.”

It appeared that most of American’s stranded passengers found space on other carriers Thursday, but the supply of available seats will grow extremely tight next week, travel agents and airline officials said. More than 9 million people are expected to jam the nation’s airports for Thanksgiving holiday trips.

“You have to wonder what’s going to happen at Thanksgiving time because there is not a whole lot of room available,” said Tom Nulty, president of Santa Ana-based Associated Travel Management.

American, which has trained other employees to assist qualified flight attendants with in-flight meal service, said it expects larger numbers of flight attendants to report to work today.

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Times staff writers Jeffrey A. Perlman and Jennifer Brundin in Orange County and Scott Sandell in Los Angeles contributed to this report.