Washington - The largest US carrier American Airlines scrapped around 570 flights Friday to inspect wiring on its fleet of MD-80 aircraft. The cancellations represented around a quarter of the airline's flights. Another 900 flights were cancelled on Thursday and more than 1,500 over the previous two days, affecting over 250,000 passengers.
The airline grounded the same planes just last month, cancelling 200 flights in connection with an industrywide probe by government aviation authorities to ensure compliance with safety inspections.
The airline said it expects the situation to return to normal over the weekend.
Delta and United Airlines were also both forced to cancel flights in the past few weeks since the Federal Aviation Administration launched its audit of all airlines in late March.
The audit was launched after the FAA fined low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines a record 10.2 million dollars for failing to meet safety regulations on its Boeing 737 aircraft.
American Airlines chief executive officer Gerard Arpey said the latest inspections were to ensure the planes were "in total agreement" with the FAA's directives and said customers would be compensated for the delays.
