Hundreds more flights canceledSFlbas airlines inspect plane wires

DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines and Delta Air Lines canceled hundreds more flights Thursday as they continued inspections of wiring bundles on some of their planes.

Although thousands of passengers were inconvenienced over the past two days, analysts downplayed any notion that the cancellations would hurt the airlines financially. They said the costs would pale in comparison to high fuel prices.

Delta expected to cancel about 275 flights, or about 3 percent of its schedule, before returning to normal operations early today, said spokeswoman Chris Kelly.

American, the nation’s largest airline, canceled 141 flights by midafternoon Thursday, or about 6 percent of its estimated 2,300 flights, officials said. The Fort Worth-based airline canceled 318 flights Wednesday.

At American, inspectors from the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration focused on fixing the spacing between cords used to secure bundles of wires in the auxiliary hydraulic systems of its MD-80 aircraft.

“In no way was safety compromised, but the [FAA] directive said ‘Do it this way,’” said American spokesman Tim Smith.