Postal Service Halts Shipments on American Airlines, US Airways

The U.S. Postal Service said it suspended shipments on AMR Corp.’s American Airlines and US Airways Group Inc. because they didn’t get the mail to destinations on time.

The air routes used to help ship first-class mail across the country were halted Feb. 12 after a five-month analysis showed consistent lateness, the Postal Service said.

The value of the contracts was not disclosed.

The mail shipments provide added revenue for airlines that have had four straight years of losses, most recently because of higher fuel costs and lower average fares. Major U.S. carriers have had combined losses of $33 billion since 2001.

Lateness has been an issue since contracts with the airlines took effect in June 2003, the Washington-based Postal Service said.

“We put them on official notice in December that we expected improvement immediately,” said John Bonafilia, who oversees commercial air operations at the Postal Service.

“And actually, since then, the performance has declined even more.”

The airlines’ on-time record before 2003 isn’t known because the Postal Service didn’t have a tracking system then, the agency said. The Postal Service, which delivers 206 billion pieces of mail a year, said the two airlines would be used again if they could show how they intended to do a better job.

“Our contractual relationship with the U.S. Postal Service has not changed,” said Tim Wagner, a spokesman for American Airlines. “We are in negotiations with the Postal Service about our level of service.”

A spokesman for Arlington, Va.-based US Airways didn’t immediately respond to requests for a comment.