American Woos Wary Travelers, Starts Fare War

American Airlines’ quick effort to lure strike-wary passengers with discounts and upgrades triggered a fare war Saturday and appeared to attract some travelers back to the nation’s largest domestic carrier.

But uncertainty still hung over the airline. It remained unclear whether the long-running labor dispute between American and its pilots will be resolved during the 60-day cooling-off period ordered by President Clinton minutes after the 9 p.m. PST strike deadline Friday.

“We could go through this again in 60 days,” said Capt. Dave Powell, an American pilot in Miami. “My main reaction [to the president’s intervention] was relief. I am a moderate. I didn’t want to strike. But I am disappointed too that nothing was settled.”

Some analysts warned that passengers might continue to avoid the airline until the pilots’ dispute over pay and job security is resolved.

Clinton’s intervention under a seldom-used emergency provision of the 1926 Railway Labor Act forced American’s 9,300 pilots to continue working while a three-member emergency board tries to help bring about a settlement. American Airlines Chairman Robert Crandall had urged such an action.

Travelers nationwide expressed relief Saturday, as did many of the 90,000 American employees who would have been furloughed during a strike. American said nearly all of its 2,200 flights were operating Saturday and it expected the 100 flights it had canceled to be restored by today.

“We’re virtually back to normal,” said company spokesman Al Becker.

A second strike is not expected. If no agreement is reached in 60 days, Congress can impose a settlement.

The last time a president appointed an emergency board to avert an airline strike was in 1966. Clinton took the action because of the economic consequences of a strike, which would have grounded the airline that carries nearly one-fifth of the nation’s daily passengers. Some observers, though, predicted the president’s action would have far-reaching implications for airline labor negotiations.

“What is the policy going to be in future situations?” asked David Walsh, a management professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, who specializes in airline labor relations. If another airline strikes, “does this mean we’re going to see presidential intervention?”

Clinton’s advisors said that question weighed heavily on the president, but so did an administration report that a strike could cost the national economy up to $200 million a day and leave 40,000 passengers stranded daily. A strike would have dealt an especially big blow to Miami and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, whose airports are dominated by American. American accounts for 12% of the flights at Los Angeles International Airport.

Crandall had estimated a strike would cost the airline up to $50 million a day.

American President Donald Carty said the carrier had already lost $100 million in profits in the days leading up to the strike because of canceled flights and passengers who switched to other carriers.

“Assuming there are no further problems, the damage is going to be over fairly quickly,” said Hans Plickert, an independent airline consultant in Connecticut.

Jacqueline Saunders, a Calabasas travel agent who works at a 24-hour reservation center for a number of agencies, said Saturday that many passengers had made double reservations to protect themselves in the event of a strike, without actually buying tickets on other carriers. For others who bought an extra ticket, she said, they could use one of the two tickets and then save the other.

In Los Angeles and Orange counties, American employees were getting back to normal Saturday morning

“All I can say is that we are very happy and relieved,” said American Airlines flight attendant Laura Fisch at John Wayne Airport in Orange County. Flight attendant Joan Fontana agreed. “I think everyone in the company was. I am just hopeful that the two sides can come together and reach an agreement quickly.”

The union, however, said its pilots could still strike in two months if no deal is reached.

“We feel the issues we were discussing are going to be the same issues today, the same issues next week and the same issues 60 days from now,” said Chuck Spence of Camarillo, one of about 850 American pilots based in the Los Angeles area.

American officials refused to speculate about the future, saying they wanted to put the fleeting strike behind them and focus on the business at hand.

Travel agents reported that customers were beginning to take advantage of American’s fare reductions, which will apply to tickets purchased until March 3. The promotion includes round-trip flights, such as Los Angeles-to-New York for $388 with no advance-purchase requirement. American also said it would double frequent-flier mileage on all flights on American Airlines and American Eagle through March 14.

Rival carriers, including United, Continental, Northwest and America West, all said they intend to compete with American’s specials in most markets during what is typically a slow period for airline travel.

“I think we’ll definitely do some matching,” Northwest spokeswoman Kathy Peach said Saturday, adding that details weren’t available.

The most critical issue in the labor dispute involves the question of who will fly the new regional jets that American plans to add to its American Eagle commuter fleet. The company wants the jets to be flown by American Eagle pilots, who are represented by a separate union and earn on average $35,000 a year--compared with about $120,000 for an American Airlines pilot.

The union for American Airlines fears that the company will use the lower-cost commuter planes on American Airlines routes, thus threatening to displace its members.

George Hopkins, a history professor at Western Illinois University who has written three books on pilots and their unions, said Saturday that labor is weakened by the fact that there are two pilot unions at American that have a history of antagonism. But Hopkins also expressed disdain that AMR, the parent of both American Airlines and American Eagle, had formed two companies providing essentially the same service but were apparently pitting workers at one against the other.

Hopkins did not view Clinton’s action as anti-labor, saying that he believes many other labor groups do not want to see their members out of work. Despite the halt to the strike, Hopkins said neither the company nor American pilots could afford a long strike.

“The pilots are in a marriage with management of the corporation in which no divorce is possible,” Hopkins said, noting that an American pilot going to another carrier would lose seniority and pay. “And as in any marriage, there are going to be fights. But when the day is done, they’ve got to get in the same bed.”

Times staff writer Melinda Fulmer in Orange County and special correspondent Mike Clary in Miami also contributed to this story.