Pilots say American wants to resume contract talks

American officials have been saying they wanted to resume negotiations on a new labor contract, and they put that in writing this week at the request of the pilots' union. A union spokesman said the group's board will meet Wednesday to decide on the next step.

Pilots and management at American have been bickering for years, but the conflict came to a head this month when a federal bankruptcy judge allowed the airline to break its contract with pilots. American set new pay and work rules that could lead to outsourcing more flying to other airlines.

Almost immediately, delays and cancelations rose sharply at American, the nation's third-biggest airline. American canceled more than 300 flights last week, and the new week began no better.

By Tuesday afternoon, American canceled 67 flights, or 3.7 percent of its schedule — four times the airline's rate last September — and only 61 percent of arrivals were on-time.

But that was better than Monday, when American scrubbed 113 flights, or 6.1 percent of its total. Other than its regional-flying affiliate, American Eagle, which had 13 cancelations, no other airline had more than eight, according to flight-tracking service FlightStats.com.

Only 51.1 percent of American's flights Monday arrived on time, compared with at least 88 percent at Delta, US Airways, United and Southwest, according to FlightStats.

American and parent AMR Corp. sought Chapter 11 protection in November. Travelers have grown accustomed to flying on airlines that are under bankruptcy protection — United, Delta and US Airways all went through Chapter 11 last decade and they survived — but passengers might not put up with unreliable service. Experts including American's former chief, Robert Crandall, believe that passengers will "book away" and skip American.