Airlines' close relationship with FAA is about to change

WASHINGTON — The maintenance woes that have plagued the airline industry in recent weeks aren't tied to the run-up in jet fuel prices and economic slump that have been putting the squeeze on airline profit margins, an industry leader says.

"No airline in its right mind is going to scrimp on maintenance, no matter what the economy is like," Southwest Airlines Executive Chairman Herb Kelleher said after testifying Thursday at a House hearing on the Federal Aviation Administration oversight of the nation's airlines.

Instead, the added attention to maintenance appears to be the price airlines are paying for a close relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration, a relationship the agency, after some not-so-subtle prodding by lawmakers, is beginning to change.

The nation's air carriers have been struggling for months to cope with stratospheric fuel prices. Those costs helped push ATA Airlines into bankruptcy court on Thursday and prompted Aloha Airlines to halt operations.

Houston-based Continental Airlines has been spending $170 a second on jet fuel, the company said, and a $1 move in the price of a barrel of jet fuel over a year's time causes the carrier's annual expenses to swing by $45 million. At the same time, the nation's carriers in the last few weeks have parked at least 565 aircraft because of maintenance concerns.

But a string of witnesses testifying before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee tied those groundings to the investigation of the FAA's handling of a safety lapse at Dallas-based Southwest — not to the industry's economic challenges.

In March 2007, for example, FAA safety inspector Charalambe "Bobby" Boutris learned that an agency supervisor had permitted Southwest to continue flying Boeing 737s despite cracks being discovered in a fuselage. Eventually, Southwest officials learned 46 aircraft were overdue for inspections of their fuselages, and their subsequent inspections found cracks in the fuselages of six.

Southwest continued to fly those aircraft for nine days after formally notifying the FAA that it was late in conducting these inspections, according to the testimony.

U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel III estimates 6 million passengers flew on those jetliners after they should have been inspected, and 145,000 rode on them after cracks had been discovered on one.

Boutris and other witnesses testified to what they described as a cozy relationship between FAA and Southwest, a conclusion supported by the Inspector General's report.