American Airlines bringing back free coach meals

American Airlines bringing back free coach meals

DALLAS

In an industry where no popular change goes uncopied for very long, American Airlines announced last week it’s bringing back free coach meals on two of its longest domestic routes, mirroring a move made by rival Delta Air Lines last month.

American plans to introduce a selection of free meals on transcontinental flights in both directions between New York and Los Angeles and New York and San Francisco beginning May 1.

Options vary based on the time of the flight and will include a continental breakfast or a boxed meal with a sandwich wrap, chips and dessert, the carrier said. A vegetarian option and a fruit and cheese plate will also be available.

“Some of our best customers fly our trans-continental routes and we want to give them a top-notch onboard experience,” American’s vice president of global marketing Fernand Fernandez said in a statement. “Providing complimentary meals in the main cabin is yet another step we’re taking to enhance our service in this competitive market.”

Airlines record more delays

U.S. airlines are having trouble keeping flights on time this winter, and they are recording a sharp increase in long delays.

The Transportation Department said last week that 42 flights in January were stuck on the ground so long that the airlines could face fines. That is the highest number of long ground delays in one month since February 2010, shortly before the rule allowing fines took effect.

Only 76 percent of flights on leading airlines arrived on time in January, down sharply from 81.3 percent a year earlier.

That followed a similar pattern in December, when delays were more common than a year earlier.

Hawaiian, Delta and American had the best on-time ratings. Virgin America had the worst.

The Transportation Department said 30 domestic flights were delayed on the ground at least three hours and 12 international flights were stuck at least four hours.

Those flights appeared to violate federal rules requiring airlines to give long-delayed passengers a chance to get off the plane.

The department said it was investigating all 42 incidents.

The department said that 2 percent of flights on the leading 12 U.S. airlines were canceled in January, down from 2.6 percent in January 2016 but worse than December.

On-time flights

Here are the government’s rankings of the top five U.S. airlines and their on-time performance for January. The federal government counts a flight as on time if it arrives no more than 14 minutes behind the scheduled time.

Hawaiian Airlines, 85.7 percent

Delta Air Lines, 80.7 percent

American Airlines, 79.2 percent

United Airlines, 78.4 percent

Alaska Airlines, 77.6 percent

Geography quiz

Q. The island city/state Singapore lies off the southern end of which country?

A. Malaysia. The onetime British colony has a land area of roughly 265 square miles and a population of about 5.8 million. It’s one of the world’s most prosperous countries.

Combined dispatches