Most airline passengers’ knowledge of bankruptcy doesn’t extend beyond reading news accounts of the travails of the U.S. and global economy.
However, passengers of Fort Worth-based American Airlines seem to have found themselves in the middle of a bankruptcy-related power struggle between the airline pilots’ union and American’s parent company AMR. Recent developments include AMR’s threat of court action unless pilots end unnecessary flight delays. Some speculate that the pilots are delaying flights as payback to the airlines, which successfully fought in bankruptcy court to change the terms of pilot labor contracts.
“People don’t want to be dragged into a bankruptcy dispute,” Dallas bankruptcy lawyer Linda LaRue recently told KRLD-AM reporter Chuck Schechner. LaRue, who works in the Dallas office of Quilling, Selander, Lownds, Winslett & Moser, P.C., adds: "The airline and the union may argue over the facts underlying the delays and cancellations, but one undeniable point is that the continued loyalty of the customer base is necessary in order for the airline to survive. It doesn't matter what side the public blames for its inconvenience. The issue is whether passengers will take their business elsewhere and, if so, for how long.”