For the second time in a week, the Federal Aviation Administration has announced that it has proposed fining American Airlines for aircraft maintenance violations.

The FAA revealed Thursday that it sent a letter to American last week proposing a $300,000 civil penalty for the maintenance lapses, which could have endangered the aircraft, flight crew and passengers.

American Airlines maintenance workers, the FAA said, failed to properly document a malfunctioning speed indicator on an MD-82 jet in February 2009.

Not knowing about the defective indicator, crews flew the plane five times, including at night and in inclement winter weather. Such flights are allowed under American’s FAA-approved procedures, but only in daylight and clear weather.
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An American Airlines jet scraped a wingtip and partially veered off the runway while landing in poor visibility Sunday night at Charlotte, N.C., and federal air-safety regulators are looking into why it took the carrier four hours to notify them about the event.

While none of the crew or the 110 passengers aboard Flight 1402 was injured, the Federal Aviation Administration is treating the event as an accident. On Monday, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said American’s timing in notifying the agency “is part of the investigation.” (continue reading…)

British Airways goes to court today in a desperate bid to get the Christmas strike by cabin crew ruled illegal.

The 12-day walkout could cost loss-making BA £30million a day and ruin the airline. It will also wreck Christmas travel plans for more than a million passengers.

Many were yesterday scrambling to book with other airlines. But increased demand has led to carriers bumping prices even higher and thousands of travellers will be priced out.
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American Airlines is upping the ante for an alliance with Japan Airlines in an effort to outbid Delta and gain access to JAL’s trans-Pacific routes.

American Chief Executive Gerard Arpey told JAL Wednesday that his company will not compete with the financially struggling Japanese carrier for connecting passengers to other points in Asia if it remains American’s partner in the Oneworld alliance, according to The Associated Press. American’s exclusivity offer would involve American feeding traffic between the U.S. and Japan but not elsewhere in Asia.
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Japan’s transport ministry expects the U.S. government to rule on two expected airline antitrust applications by October 2010 before enacting a landmark new aviation deal.

The ministry expects the applications involving Japanese members of two global airline alliances to be filed by mid-February, and called on its counterpart “to give expeditious consideration,” according to a letter sent to the U.S. State Department.
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American Airlines on Thursday stepped up efforts to save its partnership with Japan Airlines, the troubled carrier that is the lynchpin of its Asian network, by promising a $1.1bn investment to support the group.

The investment – much of which would be provided by US private equity group TPG – exceeds a rival offer from Delta Air Lines, which is trying to lure JAL away from Amercian’s OneWorld alliance.

Last month Delta and its SkyTeam partners offered to inject $500m of new equity into JAL and to extend another $500m in asset-backed financing and compensation for the cost of switching teams.
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Bombardier Inc. said Thursday that the parent of regional airline American Eagle ordered 22 jets with a value of $779 million.

Eagle, the regional sister carrier of American Airlines, held options on the planes and converted them to firm orders, said Bombardier said, which is based in Canada.

In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Eagle parent AMR Corp. said it reached an agreement with Canada’s export agency and another party, which it did not name, to provide financing for the full cost of the order. (continue reading…)

AMR Corp., the operator of American Airlines and regional airline American Eagle, said late Thursday that traffic declined at American Airlines and rose at American Eagle in November.

American Airlines November traffic dipped 0.5% to 9.49 billion revenue passenger miles and traffic at American Eagle rose 11.7% to 634.6 million revenue passenger miles from a year ago.
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American Airlines said preparations for an investment in Japan Airlines Corp. are at an advanced stage after Delta Air Lines Inc. announced a package of incentives to lure the Asian carrier into a new alliance.

Japan Air, as the airline is known, would face a regulatory risk in leaving American’s Oneworld group and joining Delta’s SkyTeam, Theo Panagiotoulias, American’s Pacific director, told reporters today in Tokyo.
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