NEW YORK (AP) - American Airlines' CEO acknowledges that passengers have had a rough few weeks on the airline but says the carrier is working through its issues.
"The operational performance is improving," CEO Tom Horton said Monday. "We'll get past this just like other airlines before us have."
The airline, which has been in bankruptcy protection since November, saw its on-time performance drop to 59 percent in September, according to Flightstats.com. In that same period Delta, Southwest and U.S. Airways were all above 85 percent. The airline has blamed the delays on pilots writing up extra maintenance requests as part of an unsanctioned job action.
Delays and cancellations snowballed after a federal bankruptcy judge ruled against the airline's pilots, allowing management to impose new pay and work rules. Pilots started filing more maintenance complaints, sometimes minutes before the scheduled departure time, and flew circuitous routes.
The airline has cut flights and added reserve crews and extra planes to cover any last-minute delays. Now that the two sides are back at the bargaining table, Horton says customers should notice more on-time flights.
"Unfortunately for a couple of weeks there, it was very difficult on our customers," he said. He said the company's operating performance is "not yet back to the level we think our customers deserve and expect from American, but it has improved significantly since the period right after the contract rejection."
Despite its troubles, Horton said American remains committed to safety. The airline grounded 48 of its 111 Boeing 757s last week after seats came loose on three separate flights.