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AMR cancels more flights
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February 8, 1999: 7:51 p.m. ET
Passengers inconvenienced as dispute drags through 3rd day; AMR stock off
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - American Airlines, forced Monday to cancel up to 500 more flights, threatened to drag its pilots to court to get them to end a four-day work slowdown.
The slowdown, which started Friday, disrupted travel plans for thousands of travelers over the weekend.
Reno Air ignites dispute
The pilots are protesting lower pay for pilots at Reno Air, a small West Coast carrier that American bought late last year.
Pilots union president Rich Lavoy said pilots fear American will acquire other smaller airlines and create a low-pay discount carrier.
"Management has been pressuring for a number of years now to fly an airline within an airline..essentially to establish a another second-tier payscale and that's something we're adamantly opposed to," Lavoy said.
The cancellations dragged down AMR Corp. (AMR), American's parent, which fell 2-15/16 to 57. Other airline stocks also fell.
The dispute did not appear headed for a swift resolution Monday. AMR Chairman Don Carty said the carrier could end up canceling 500 flights, up from its estimate of 360 earlier in the day.
Speaking at news conference in Fort Worth, Texas, where the airline is based, Carty said American would consider a court injunction to stop the pilots' action as the busy three-day President's Day holiday weekend approached at the end of this week.
Another official at American said more flight cancellations were likely Tuesday. "I would expect there would be," he said but declined to say how many.
Flights from Chicago's O'Hare airport to New York, Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New Orleans and San Juan, Puerto Rico, were among those canceled Monday.
Passengers complain of delays
Passengers were being rerouted to other carriers, but some complained of missed connections and long delays.
The pilots also appeared to be digging in for a lengthy dispute.
"Based on past experience, it is likely that volunteer flying will continue to decline as the Reno Air dispute drags on without a negotiated solution that is fair to all of the pilots involved," Rich LaVoy, president of the Allied Pilots Association (APA), said in a statement posted on the union's Web site.
Pilots are severely restricted by federal law from striking, but they can decline to work overtime.
LaVoy said talks broke off Friday with no agreement and no new talks were scheduled.
The two sides have failed to agree on how to merge the pilot ranks of American and Reno Air, whose pilots earn about half the $150,000 that American's 9,200 APA pilots earn.
The slowdown is the latest in a series of disputes between American Airlines and its unions.
Two years ago, 9,300 American pilots voted to walk off the job before being ordered back to work by President Clinton.
That conflict stemmed from American's efforts employ lower-paid pilots to fly its American Eagle commuter planes.
The stock of Delta Air Lines (DAL) fell 1-5/8 to 55-15/16, Continental Air (CAI.B) lost 1 to 38-3/4, and United's parent UAL Corp. (UAL) dropped 3/8 to 63-15/16.
-- from staff and wire reports 
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