Passengers Can Expect More Audit-Related Flight Cancellations

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) audit of airline maintenance records, which prompted American and Delta to take hundreds of their MD-80 series aircraft out of service for brief inspections on Wednesday and Thursday, is now expected to continue for the foreseeable future, meaning that passengers may be subjected to more canceled flights in the weeks ahead.

American canceled some 450 flights over a two-day period as it voluntarily removed 290 aircraft from service to inspect the method used for securing a particular wiring bundle.

Delta performed similar inspections on its 117 MD-88 aircraft, saying that it expected the procedure to result in some 275 cancellations through early Friday, the end of the first phase of the FAA audit process.

As reported, the FAA launched a review of airline compliance with airworthiness directives, or mandatory maintenance orders, after disclosures that Southwest Airlines had operated 46 aircraft on thousands of flights in 2006 and 2007 without documenting that certain fuselage inspections had been performed.

As part of the review, the FAA is checking airline record-keeping systems to ensure that they have procedures in place to monitor compliance with airworthiness directives. The first phase of the FAA audit was to involve 10 airworthiness directives at each airline. The second phase, which could begin as early as next week, will involve 10 percent of the airworthiness directives affecting each carrier.

The maintenance reviews are expected to continue through June, raising the possibility that other carriers may have to resort to similar spot cancellations to re-inspect aircraft or to bring them into compliance.