American Pilots Defy Order, Hobble Airline

Nearly a quarter of American Airlines’ pilots defied a court order and their union leadership and extended their sickout to a sixth day Thursday, forcing the giant carrier to again cancel more than half of its 2,250 daily flights.

The pilots’ action virtually guaranteed continued widespread disruption for thousands of travelers during the three-day Presidents Day holiday weekend, when empty seats on other airlines will be in short supply.

More than 3,500 American flights have now been canceled, and more than 350,000 passengers inconvenienced since the pilots began calling in sick last weekend in a labor dispute over American’s recent purchase of smaller carrier Reno Air.

American and the pilots’ union continued their negotiations Thursday. But even if all of American’s 9,200 pilots immediately reported to work, disrupted flight schedules, out-of-place aircraft and other lingering effects of the pilots’ job action would probably lead to more canceled flights this weekend.

At Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, 12 of 26 American Airlines flights scheduled for Thursday were canceled, airport spokeswoman Kathleen Campini Chambers said.

Most passengers were patient as they waited in long lines to be rebooked on other airlines or other American flights, she said, but “it’s still an inconvenience.”

Meanwhile, representatives for the frustrated company marched back into court Thursday and asked that the union, the Allied Pilots Assn., be found in contempt of court for failing to end the pilots’ sickout, as ordered Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Joe Kendall in Dallas.

The APA, via its telephone hotline and Internet site, urged its members to follow the order. Union leaders “instruct all pilots to resume their normal working schedule and to otherwise comply” with the judge’s ruling, the APA said in its daily Internet posting.

But American--the primary unit of Fort Worth-based AMR Corp.--said Thursday’s sickout showed the union’s effort wasn’t enough. In seeking the contempt order, the airline said the union still hadn’t “clearly communicated to its members to return to work, and that APA did not take reasonable steps to end the sickout.”

American, its customers, its other employees and Kendall all “had expectations that things would get better, not worse,” the airline said. A hearing on American’s motion was set for today in Kendall’s courtroom.

The motion “is ridiculous,” said Drew Engelke, an American pilot and union spokesman in Fort Worth. “We’ve done everything humanly possible to be in compliance” with the judge’s order, he said.

But about 2,400 pilots called in sick Thursday, up from 2,077 a day earlier, which forced American to cancel about 1,170 flights, 170 more flights than on Wednesday, said American spokesman John Hotard.

To be sure, pilots are often scheduled to work for three or four days at a time, so sick calls from earlier this week spilled over into cancellations Thursday. Even so, it’s “obvious the pilots aren’t following the judge’s order,” Hotard said.

Engelke said his colleagues “are even more angry than they were [Wednesday] because management couldn’t settle this dispute at the bargaining table and had to seek outside help.”

If the union is found in contempt, the most likely penalty would be a fine, said Stuart Starry, an aviation lawyer in Houston. And the judge could rule that the fine keep increasing as long as the job action lasts, he added.

American already is offering full refunds, no-fee reservations changes and other options to affected customers for travel through Monday. And the airline, which carries more than 200,000 people on an average day, said it might extend those offers if the sickout drags on.

At Los Angeles International Airport, American also tried to soothe unhappy passengers with a smorgasbord, setting out tables with bagels, cream cheese, muffins and juice in the morning and adding sandwiches and chips at lunchtime. American handles about 9% of LAX’s traffic.

The disruptions have been much worse at the airline’s hub airports in Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago and Miami, and those would be the hardest-hit markets this weekend. Miami also serves as a gateway to American’s busy Latin American service.

Some observers said the pilots’ refusal to drop the sickout illustrates not only the deep divisions between the two sides but the power that the pilots still hold in such disputes. That’s true regardless of a court order that would be hard to enforce anyway because it would involve proving whether each pilot is actually sick or not, they said.

In that sense, little has changed from nine years ago when hundreds of American’s pilots also defied a court order and continued calling in sick during a bitter contract feud.

American and the union are at odds about American’s recent buyout of regional airline Reno Air. The union wants immediate pay raises for the lesser-paid Reno Air pilots and immediate promotions for American pilots who stand to move up as the Reno Air purchase expands American’s route system. American, though, wants the process to take 12 to 18 months. American pilots’ salaries average about $136,000 a year.

Under their current contract, American’s pilots are barred by federal law from going on strike over the issue.

But the ill feelings on both sides go much deeper and reflect the pilots’ unhappiness about a variety of wage and work-rule changes during the last decade when American was run by the combative Robert Crandall, analysts said.

Crandall was succeeded as chief executive last year by the more amiable Donald Carty, but Carty is a veteran of American’s contentious labor negotiations. Two years ago this weekend, in fact, American’s pilots briefly went on strike after contract talks broke down, but they were quickly ordered back to work by President Clinton.

“There are a lot of residual issues that the Reno Air acquisition brought to the surface, and it [the dispute] surprised everybody,” said Philip Roberts, a principal at consulting firm Roberts, Roach & Associates in Hayward, Calif.

Times staff writer Megan Garvey contributed to this report. Times wire services also were used.